U.S. Open hosts wheelchair tennis tourney
Photo credit: Joe Epstein | Emmy Kaiser of the USA hits a return shot to Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands in the Wheelchair Women's Singles Quarterfinals at the US Open.
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No love was lost and no lob serves offered after David Wagner and Nick Taylor, the No. 1 and No. 4 ranked quadriplegic men's tennis players in the world, rolled onto Court 11 at the U.S. Open Thursday.
Using an electric-powered swivel swing, Taylor sent Wagner racing to the base line to chase deep lobs. Wagner, 35, of Portland, Ore., who lost the use of his legs and most of the use of his arms after a fall in the surf in 1995, pounded shot after shot at Taylor's backhand with a racket taped to his right hand.
Muttering "Come on!" as he twirled in his electric wheelchair, Taylor of Wichita, Kan. lost to his longtime rival, 6-1, 6-1. Afterward, Wagner said he's no longer awed by Taylor's unique serve, in which he flicks the ball off a foot before swinging as he spins his chair. "It's impressive . . . but I'm also ready to make him eat it when he serves it," Wagner said with a laugh of Taylor, a friend and doubles partner.
With little in the way of endorsements and prize money and only a handful of spectators, the pressures of professional wheelchair tennis don't equal those of the able-bodied pro tour. But at the opening of the U.S. Open's wheelchair competition Thursday, players said the camaraderie in the sport, the shared challenges of living with disabilities, doesn't equal a lack of hard-nosed gamesmanship.
"Basically the strategy is, pick on their weakness. It's just a little different in a wheelchair because you find the weakness in their disability," said Wagner. "Probably the average person, they might say 'poor guy, you're picking on him,' but no way; it's part of the game."
The Open's wheelchair competition wasn't held in 2008 because most of the top players were at the Paralympic Games in Beijing. This year's round-robin drew 20 top players, including 2008 Paralympic gold medalist Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands, who continued her 6-year run of singles victories in Arthur Ashe stadium Thursday.
The rules of the game are the same except that players get an extra bounce before the ball must be returned. To qualify for the division, players must have a substantial loss of function in one or both legs and at least one arm.
