Shingo Kunieda won the US Open men’s wheelchair singles title on Sunday, two-time defending champion outlasting Alfie Hewett 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3).
The World No. 1 seed from Japan won the final three points of the tiebreaker to pull out the match that lasted 2 hours, 54 minutes.
“I’m really tired but happy. I didn’t know how it would play out until the end,” Kunieda said of the match at Louis Armstrong Stadium that lasted almost three hours.
“My intention this year was to have intense battles with powerful players, and it seems like that’s taking me in a good direction.”
“I thought while taking a shower (after the match) that it would have been a gold medal had it been the Tokyo Paralympics,” Kunieda said. “I’ll keep it going for next year.”
The wheelchair tournaments were played after the U.S. Tennis Association originally planned to scrap them this year in an effort to keep the number of people onsite down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
