Beginning Wednesday, history will be made at the 2022 US Open Wheelchair Championships presented by Deloitte: A record 16 men and 16 women, as well as eight quad players, make up the largest Grand Slam field in wheelchair tennis history.
Across the three disciplines, a total of seven players are making their US Open debuts. Four of them are, in fact, playing their first Grand Slam of any kind. Learn more about them before the 2022 US Open Wheelchair Championships presented by Deloitte officially begin.
Macarena Cabrillana
Macarena Cabrillana became the first Chilean wheelchair tennis player to ever compete at a Grand Slam tournament when she played at last year's Australian Open. The 30-year-old is playing her third career Grand Slam event in New York; her best-ever result so far was a doubles semifinal finish at Roland Garros this spring.
She won her first professional title on the UNIQLO/ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour in 2011, and was the silver medalist in women's singles at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Pauline Deroulede
France's Pauline Deroulede had her left leg amputated after being hit by a car in 2018. Having been an able-bodied tennis coach before her injury, she soon turned to wheelchair tennis and debuted on the professional tour in 2019.
A wild card into the US Open's main draw, she reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 15 in the world in July, and enters the US Open ranked No. 17.
She own three career singles titles and eight doubles titles on the ITF/UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, which includes five doubles wins this year. Four of them have come partnering Germany's Katharina Kruger, who's her first-round singles opponent in Flushing Meadows.
Tokito Oda
While Shingo Kunieda is seeking to make history at this US Open by becoming the first player to win the Grand Slam in men's wheelchair singles, his 16-year-old compatriot Tokito Oda looks set to take wheelchair tennis by storm.
This year, Oda's skyrocketed to a career-high ranking of No. 4 in the world (he's also the top-ranked junior, but won't be playing the first-ever boys' singles event at the US Open this week) and played at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He won two matches in Paris before falling to his legendary compatriot in the semifinals 6-1, 6-2, but Kunieda said then that the youngster's talent was evident.
In his young career so far, Oda's already won 20 professional titles, including a staggering eight in singles last year. This year, he's won three--one in singles and two in doubles.
Robert Shaw
Canada's Robert Shaw enters the quad event at the US Open Wheelchair Championships ranked a career-best No. 7 in the world. The 32-year-old veteran owns 21 career quad singles titles and 19 doubles titles on the professional tour, including five and four respectively this year.
From North Bay, Ontario, Shaw made history for Canada by winning the gold medal at the 2019 Parapan American Games.
However, despite all his tour-level and international accomplishments, he's never before played in a Grand Slam event. Here, he's making his major debut as a wild card, and is the first-round foe for top seed Niels Vink.
Daniel Caverzaschi
Daniel Caverzaschi is a standard-bearer for Spanish tennis; he's represented his country at three Paralympics, and last summer in Tokyo, was the first man from Spain to ever reach the Paralympic quarterfinals.
The left-handed Spaniard played his first Grand Slam tournament this spring at Roland Garros; though he lost in the first round in singles, he reached the doubles semifinals with compatriot Martin de la Puente.
Alexander Cataldo
Alexander Cataldo, like his compatriot Cabrillana, is playing his first US Open; however, for him, it's his first Grand Slam at all.
However, he's been racking up tour-level hardware since 2014; the 24-year-old owns 32 career professional singles titles and 21 doubles titles in his career to date. Last summer, he represented Chile at the Tokyo Paralympics, and won a round in singles and doubles.
Jason Keatseangsilp
American Jason Keatseangsilp, a 27-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., is one of two wild cards in the men's draw.
He's represented the U.S. in World Team Cup competition - the wheelchair counterpart to Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup—for three straight years, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 31 in June. He also peaked at No. 25 in doubles in July.
So far in 2022, he's won one singles title and three doubles titles on the UNIQLO/ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
