U.S. Open wheelchair tennis tournament

The Wheelchair portion of the U.S. Open started today and I just had the privledge of sitting through two sets of one of the men's matches.

The rules are fairly intricate. A ball may bounce two times, in or out of bounds. The server is allowed one push of the chair before serving the ball. Points are lost (or gained) on the third bounce, if a player uses any part of his lower body as brakes, or if he/she fails to keep his or her bottom on the chair when hitting the ball. Wheelchair tennis was founded in 1976 by a man named Brad Parks. Parks was injured in a skiing accident at the age of 18, and was inducted in to the Tennis Hall of Fame just this year.

The chairs come in three wheel and four wheel varieties. The four wheel offers more stability for a player who is more aggressive, while a three wheel is less stability but offers quicker turns.

I watched Stefan Olsson, a 23 year old from Sweden, and Maikel (prounounced like Michael) Scheffers play on one of the smaller courts, and it really is one of the more entertaining and sort of mind boggling sports to watch,  Controlling a wheelchair while chasing around a tennis ball takes an insane amount of upper body strength and athleticism, and these guys make it look so easy.