There's an old saying that goes, 'Age ain't nothing but a number,' and France's Stephane Houdet proved that in style on the opening day of the 2023 US Open Wheelchair Championships presented by Deloitte.
The 52-year-old former world No. 1 sent shocks through the men's draw with a 6-1, 6-1 upset of world No. 1 Tokito Oda, in a match with a 35-year age gap between the two competitors. The 17-year-old Oda came into the tournament as a title favorite, having won Roland Garros and Wimbledon—making him the youngest man to win a wheelchair Grand Slam title in the process.
But Houdet, winner of the US Open singles title in 2013 and 2017, as well as four more Opens in doubles was the more consistent of the two players in the 69-minute shocker; though they both hit 17 winners, the Frenchman struck just six unforced errors to Oda's 21.
The other two world No. 1s in action on the tournament's opening day has little trouble. Defending women's champion Diede de Groot started her US Open campaign, and her quest for a third consecutive calendar-year Grand Slam, with a 6-2, 6-0 win over France's Pauline Deroulede while defending quad singles champion Niels Vink was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Chile's Francisco Cayulef.
Chalk otherwise abounded around the singles draws, though some seeds were tested. No. 2 seed Yui Kamiji trailed 4-1 in the opening set of her Round 1 match against American Dana Mathewson, who's playing in her last US Open this year before retiring from tennis at the end of 2024, and Mathewson had two set points serving at 5-4, before Kamiji rallied for the 7-5, 6-1 win.
In the men's draw, No. 3 seed Gustavo Fernandez rallied after losing the first set against former No. 1 Joachim Gerard, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4; and No. 4 seed Martin De La Puente was a 6-0, 6-7(5), 6-4 winner over Takashi Sanada.
The U.S. did score two wins, though, courtesy of Casey Ratzlaff and David Wagner. Wagner, the No. 4 seed in the quad singles, was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Brazil's Ymanitu Silva, while wild card Ratzlaff scored a 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 win over Maikel Scheffers for his first US Open main-draw win in his fourth attempt.
