When tennis fans talk about Nigerians on the global stage, names like Nduka Odizor and Tony Mmoh often come up. But few remember that at the US Open event in 2013, wheelchair tennis star Alex Adewale quietly made history at Flushing Meadows.
Adewale became the last Nigerian tennis player to feature in a US Open Main Draw event, a feat that has not been repeated by any Nigerian tennis player 12 years later.
The man fondly called Osama by his folks at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, where he is already commands a legendary status, has been on a roll winning virtually every national tournament in the country for almost a decade now.
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Not only has this man been one of the most talented wheelchair tennis players from Africa, he remains the last tennis player from Nigeria to play at a Grand Slam event.
In 2013, Adewale reached the second round of the US Open event in Flushing Meadows, after defeating Brazilian player Lucas Pedro 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the competition.
He could not advance to the third round as he was stopped by Belgium’s Joachim Gerard. The then number four seed bageled Osama 6-0, 6-0 but the Nigerian player said it was not embarrassing as he was up against a very experienced player.
“What it means is that I have to train even harder and work on myself. I played against world number four, a very experienced player, so it’s not something I should be ashamed of,” he said at the time.
Even though he is not on the ITF rankings as of today, Adewale ended the year 2013 as the world’s 116 ranked player, his highest year-end ranking till date since he burst onto the international scene in 2008 or thereabouts.
The blazing hot Adewale, en route to winning a 2011 ITF 3 Series in South Africa, did not drop a single set against all his opponents who were South Africans.
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At the London 2012 Paralympics, Osama represented Nigeria at the tennis event even though he ended up on the losing side against France’s Nicholas Pelfer in a match that ended 6-0, 6-1.
The 35-year-old has represented Nigeria at several World Team Cup qualifiers and main event, most notably his appearance at the World Team Cup championship in 2012, where he was unable to win a single match owing the gulf in gap between him and his opponents.
He has consistently complained about the tennis federation neglecting the physically-challenged players, preferring their able-bodied counterparts even more.
As the hosts at the 2021 National Sports Festival, the Edo State athlete defeated erstwhile number one player, Wasiu Yusuf 6-2, 6-3, to win gold medal at the event, and has won most of the national tournaments since then.
In 2025, the player is yet to participate in any tournament of note with the wheelchair tennis national events postponed from the dates they were supposed to hold inside the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
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More recently, Adewale has been one of the coaches at the tennis clinic currently taking place in Benin City, Edo State, where he is seen coaching youngsters on the basics of the game.
As the 2025 US Open event serves off in the United States, we take a reflection on the Nigerian tennis player as the last player from the country to participate in the event as the dearth of competitions is beginning to have a ripple effect on the wheelchair tennis players in the country.
While they await a new date for their competition initially scheduled to hold from 11 August, 2025, the wheelchair tennis players in Nigeria will be hoping for something exciting as the year nears its end.
