Guy Sasson’s US Open Journey: Heartbreak and Hope for Israeli Para Tennis
The dream was alive right up until the final tiebreak in New York. Then it slipped away by three points.
Israeli quad wheelchair tennis player Guy Sasson came within a breath of completing a calendar Grand Slam in doubles at the US Open, only to fall agonizingly short alongside partner Niels Vink. The top-seeded pair, dominant all season, lost 2–6, 6–3, 7–10 in the deciding match tiebreak to second seeds Sam Schroder and Jin Woodman.
For months, Sasson and Vink had been untouchable on the biggest stages. Australian Open. Roland Garros. Wimbledon. Three majors, three titles, one partnership that looked almost inevitable. In New York, they arrived as the team to beat, carrying the weight of expectation that comes with chasing history.
They started the final like a team ready to finish the job. A ruthless 6–2 first set put them in control. But the response from Schroder and Woodman was just as fierce. The momentum swung, the rallies stretched, and the second seeds wrestled back the initiative to take the second set 6–3 and drag the contest into a match tiebreak.
Ten points to decide a season-long quest. Sasson and Vink blinked first.
Schroder and Woodman held their nerve when it mattered most, closing out the 10–7 breaker and with it denying Sasson a place in the sport’s most exclusive club. One match, one tiebreak, between him and a calendar Slam in doubles.
Partner one day, opponent the next
Sasson’s US Open story did not end with that doubles defeat. In singles, the world No. 3 and third seed in the quad division carved his way into the semifinals, only to find a familiar figure across the net: Vink.
What followed was a reminder of why both men sit near the top of the game. Sasson trailed 2–5 in the opening set, seemingly on the brink of being swept aside. He fought back, game by game, to level at 5–5 and drag himself into the contest. The comeback charge electrified the match, but Vink shut the door at the key moments, taking the set 7–5 and backing it up 6–3 in the second.
Vink went on to lift the singles title. Sasson left New York without a trophy, but with another deep run in singles and a doubles campaign that came within inches of history.
A long and difficult journey
Back home, the performances did not go unnoticed. Israel ParaSport Center CEO Boaz Kramer hailed the efforts of Sasson and fellow Israeli player Sergei Lysov, underlining just how much work sits behind any Grand Slam breakthrough.
For Kramer, a major title is not a flash in the pan but “the result of a long and difficult journey” demanding total commitment from both athletes and their teams. He stressed that the center will keep backing Sasson and Lysov, as well as their head coaches Ofri Lankri and Damien Martinique, with one clear target on the horizon: LA28.
The message was clear. New York was a chapter, not the destination.
Lysov battles, Brand emerges
Lysov, competing in the men’s wheelchair division at the US Open for the second time, endured a tougher campaign. He pushed his opening singles match to three sets but could not find a way through. In doubles, his run ended in the first round, again in a match tiebreak. Fine margins, brutal outcomes.
If Sasson represents the present, 17-year-old Dan Brand offered a glimpse of the future.
Making his junior US Open debut, Brand handled the stage with composure. He won his opening singles match, then found himself locked in a three-set battle in the second round. Severe cramps struck in the deciding set, turning a promising position into a physical struggle he could not overcome. The defeat hurt, but the impression he made did not fade.
In doubles, Brand teamed up with Austrian Tilo Berman. Seeded fifth, they advanced to the second round before bowing out to Yannick Alvarez of Puerto Rico and American Ryan Cozad. Another match, another marker laid down at a high level.
Brand’s schedule does not slow down. After a brief visit home to see his family in Israel, he will head to Japan for the J500 Osaka Mayor’s Cup World Super Junior Tennis Championships, held from September 21–27 in Osaka. Different continent, same ambition.
Sasson chasing redemption after a missed Slam, Lysov grinding through tight losses, Brand taking his first real steps on the world stage. Israeli para and junior tennis leaves New York with no trophies, but with something harder to quantify and just as important: proof that the next breakthrough may not be far away.
