Alfie Hewett clinches second Australian open and 10th Grand Slam singles title
- Peter Harding
- Jan 25
- 3 min read
Alfie Hewett completed the men’s singles and doubles title double at a Grand Slam tournament for the seventh time in his illustrious career on Saturday when the 27-year-old beat world No.1 Tokito Oda of Japan 6-4, 6-4 to claim his second Australian Open men’s wheelchair title in three years and his 10th Grand Slam singles title.
Second seed Hewett allowed Oda just two break point opportunities as he wrapped up victory on Melbourne Park’s Kia Arena in an hour and 36 minutes with his fourth break point conversion, having created 15 opportunities of his own on the Japanese player’s serve.
Having won a sixth successive Australian Open doubles title on Friday with Gordon Reid and now the owner of 32 Grand Slam titles in total, a delighted Hewett said:
“It’s a really good start to the year. My coach (Craig Allen) has labelled this as bigger than Wimbledon and in some ways I agree. Wimbledon was special for its own reasons and I don’t need to go into that. But for this as the next step, it gives me a lot of belief in the process, in the team around me and the sacrifices I’m making and that I can now kick on and take it to another level.”
Hewett identified his Paris 2024 Paralympic gold medal match against Oda as key to his first win over the 18-year-old in six matches between them.
“It’s not something that just happens on the day, it’s work that gets put in months in advance with a psychologist who’s amazing with me and the team to get the best out of me, “ he added. “The Paralympics was a complete turning curve for me. The difference at the Paralympics was that I pushed him to the limit and I was finally able to play my brand of tennis. That final will always be a massive turning point for me and my belief and today that showed."
In beating Oda for the second time in three successive Australian Open finals, Hewett edged into a 2-1 lead as the first three games took 19 minutes to complete and he then secured the first service break for a 5-3 lead.
With Hewett racing to a 3-0 second set lead, Oda converted his only two break points when trailing 5-3 in both sets. However, an exemplary performance from Hewett and his relentless pressure on the defending champion brought the final backhand error from Oda that gave Hewett his second successive Grand Slam title after winning his first Wimbledon singles crown last July.
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