Wheelchair tennis stars light up Fan Zone
Wheelchair tennis stars light up Fan Zone
The world’s best wheelchair tennis players visited Fan Zone at the Australian Open 2011 today and showed visitors that anyone can play tennis when they took to the reduced size MLC Tennis Hot Shot courts for a hit of tennis with their fans.
MLC Tennis Hot Shots is Tennis Australia’s kid’s starter program designed for children aged five to12 years and provides a fun, friendly environment where children can get involved in tennis. Modified equipment is used such as smaller racquet, courts and low compression balls to create an immediate sense of fun and achievement.
Esther Vergeer, current world No. 1 for women’s singles wheelchair tennis, was impressed by the program.
“With the smaller court and you don’t really have to sit in your tennis chair because you don’t move a lot. Using smaller racquets and softer balls is also great because otherwise the balls will go too fast and too hard,” Vergeer said.
The Dutch champion was joined at Fan Zone by Australian favourite, Daniela di Toro.
“I think MLC Tennis Hot Shots is going to translate perfectly for people with disabilities,” said di Toro, the current world No. 2 for women’s singles wheelchair tennis.
“There is a lot of technical skill behind tennis and there is even more so behind wheelchair tennis, so if you can start a bit earlier on a slightly reduced level and build up, that is only going to produce better tennis players.” di Toro added.
Australian No. 2 Michael Dobbie, who was inspired to take up wheelchair tennis after watching di Toro play during the Australian Open in 2001, was also in attendance and he was also joined by current world No. 3 Stefan Olsson of Sweden.
Like Vergeer and di Toro, Dobbie also believes MLC Tennis Hot Shots is a great platform for any child to start playing tennis.
“The lower compression balls just make it a lot easier to learn when compared to the harder the balls which obviously are faster. So the modified equipment allows more kids to play and get a different feel for the game,” he said.
“I often see children playing with adult racquets and they are not really getting any benefit out of it, so having a program like this is going to help grow the sport of tennis,” Dobbie added.
Olsson said similar programs are being developed in Sweden and he thought it was a fantastic initiative that he and his fellow wheelchair tennis players were able to showcase their sport to tennis fans at the Australian Open.
“We don’t really have the chance to do this every time, so for us this is a great experience to just show the public that we are out there and we are competing on the same level as the big guys,” Olsson expressed.
Whilst at Fan Zone the wheelchair stars also had the chance to test their skills on the fun and interactive tennis related activities, which included the Reaction Wall and Hit the Target. They also participated in an Autograph Island session that was attended by hundreds of adoring fans.
Topics: Esther Vergeer
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