Photo by Mark Metropolis
Marcus Caulston slams a return during a wheelchair tennis
demonstration at a Boston Lobsters match this summer.

Wheeling and Dealing

Wheelchair tennis is on a roll on local courts

By Cindy Cantrell

The crowd that gathered for the Boston Lobsters match on July 11 was treated to more than a 20-16 victory over Martina Hingis and the New York Buzz at Ferncroft Country Club in Middleton. At halftime, a group of local players displayed their wheelchair tennis skills to demonstrate the growing sport.

Wheelchair tennis was founded in 1976 by Brad Parks of San Clemente, Calif., who was inducted last month into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. Today, the NEC Wheelchair Tour is compromised of 157 tournaments (including all four Grand Slam championships) played in 47 countries for $1.5 million in prize money.

Locally, USTA New England and area communities offer tournaments for singles, doubles, and one-up/one-down, in which wheelchair players are partnered with able-bodied players. Wheelchair tennis athletes play on the same courts, with the same equipment, and according to the same rules as able-bodied players with a single exception: they are allowed two bounces instead of one in both singles and doubles.

David Harrison of Cambridge says he was talked into trying wheelchair tennis 15 years ago by a friend with whom he played wheelchair basketball. Paralyzed in a sledding accident at age 16, the 58-year-old now plays about three days a week.

“I’d like to see more people give it a try because it offers competition for everybody. I’ve even seen people in electric wheelchairs play,” Harrison says. “It’s a sport that if you give it a shot, it can be adapted for you. It’s amazing to see.”

Beverly’s Michael Mercier, head tennis professional at Harvard University and an award-winning wheelchair tennis advocate, says he coordinated the wheelchair tennis exhibition at the Boston Lobsters event in a continuing effort to “put a racquet in everyone’s hand.”
“Tennis is tennis,” says Mercier, who is able-bodied but teaches wheelchair tennis from a sports chair so he can better demonstrate technique. “Everyone is afraid to fail, but they just need to be shown how to do it and stay positive. That’s how I learned.”

According to Mercier, however, the sport needs greater education and funding. Some club owners, for example, mistakenly fear that sports chairs will damage their grass and clay courts. Doors within an indoor facility may accommodate a regular wheelchair, but not the extra width of a sports chair – or, as is too often the case, neither. Then there’s the cost of a sports chair, plus the expense of traveling to tournaments with an everyday wheelchair, sports chair, plus equipment.

Still, Mercier says the benefits of the sport outweigh the frustrations.

“Wheelchair tennis is a great way to rehab,” he says, “not to mention spend time with colleagues, friends, and family.”

Dick Lane of Hudson, N.H. says he was also a reluctant wheelchair tennis convert. In fact, he remembers thinking of tennis as “kind of dumb” when he was a kid, turned off by an inability to keep the ball in the court while playing with friends in the public park near his home in Lowell. Six years after being paralyzed in a November 1994 car accident, however, he bowed to peer pressure to attend a wheelchair tennis camp. Two years later, he was coaching.

“I find a lot of people need to be shown it before they can understand how easily it can be done. When my friend was first telling me about wheelchair tennis, I couldn’t picture it. But once you get started, it’s very easy to get hooked,” says 45-year-old Lane, who was the Men’s B singles and doubles finalist in the Jana Hunsaker Wheelchair Tennis Tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in N.Y. in 2009. The previous year, he was named Wheelchair Pro of the Year by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) New England Division.

Lane played tennis in a standard wheelchair for two years before he got a sports chair with cambered (angled) wheels that enhance turning radius and stability – an experience which he compares to driving a pick-up truck versus a Corvette. Today, he teaches and plays at YMCAs in Merrimack and Goffstown, N.H., coaching players who range in age from 13 to 64.

When teaching wheelchair tennis, Lane says he considers the extent of each participant’s disability or illness. For example, a wheelchair should be adjusted to provide more stability for a player with an upper spine injury.

“The challenge of getting to the ball and then getting it over the net keeps me coming back as a player,” Lane says, “but it’s even better to teach somebody else and see the enjoyment they get out of it.”

While 67-year-old Bob Rogers of Danvers didn’t participate in the Boston Lobsters exhibition, he is a lifelong tennis player who rededicated himself to the sport after observing Mercier conducting a similar demonstration at the Beverly Golf & Tennis Club about five years ago.

Rogers, who sustained his spinal cord injury in a skiing accident on New Year’s Day in 1977, was initially able to walk with a brace and even regained enough mobility to return to jogging, skiing, and playing tennis and basketball. His condition deteriorated over the years, however, until he began using a wheelchair full-time around 2000.

“I ballooned up to 280 pounds before I got serious about watching what I eat and staying as active as I can,” says Rogers, who now weighs in at 190 pounds. He enjoys skiing (in a sit-ski) in the winter and plays tennis three times a week in the summer, either one-up/one-down doubles or with three able-bodied players. He offers the same strategic advice for both scenarios: select a fast doubles partner.

“The biggest frustration for a wheelchair player is the lob,” he says. “I recommend saying, ‘Yours,’ and moving quickly to the other side of the court.”

Rogers, who became a certified wheelchair tennis teaching professional two years ago, hopes that more demonstrations and increased awareness of the sport in general will inspire more wheelchair athletes to learn the game. While it’s important for wheelchair tennis to be played at the pro level, he believes it’s imperative that potential players understand that they can enjoy the sport at all levels.

“Just go out and try it,” he says. “You don’t have to be great to have fun.”

Wheelchair tennis players may compete in USTA League Tennis, USTA Junior Team Tennis, high school teams, USTA Tennis On Campus, and tournaments from the local to international level. For more information about practice and play sessions, interstate matches, camps, and exhibitions throughout New England, visit http://www.newengland.usta.com; contact Michael Mercier at (978) 273-6500 or mercier@fas.harvard.edu; or contact Dick Lane at (603) 883-9568 or rlaneii@comcast.net.