Holding court
Mike Sciacca
The U.S. Open of Tennis is the crown jewel of tennis tournaments,
the hollowed grounds of center court at the United States Tennis
Assn.’s National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, N.Y.
is reserved for the powerful play of today’s professional superstars
like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and the Williams sisters.
For one, shining weekend earlier this month, Huntington Beach
resident Amy McKnight knew what it was like to be a part of tennis
royalty.
She was in New York as a guest player during the 2002 U.S. Open,
part of a four-player contingent that included her roommate, Jon
Rydberg. They had been invited to give an exhibition in wheelchair
tennis at the richest professional tennis event in the world.
The foursome displayed their talents in both singles and doubles
play.
“It was just an awesome experience,” McKnight said. “The crowds
really responded well to our performances and we were treated just
like the big-time players. We had all the amenities as the
able-bodied pros.”
Although the wheelchair tennis exhibitions did not take place on
center court, they were “close enough,” McKnight said.
The United States Tennis Assn. announced two weeks ago that the
2002 U.S. Open turned out to be one of the most successful in the
event’s 121-year existence, garnering high television audiences and
attendance figures, each contributing to make the tournament one of
the highest annually attended sports events in the world.
Attendance figures showed that more than 600,000 spectators came
to the USTA National Tennis Center during the two weeks of tournament
competition.
McKnight and Rydberg were invited because each, respectively, is a
top-rated wheelchair tennis players in the world.
The 28-year-old McKnight, a native of Lansing, Mich., currently
holds a No. 30 world ranking in singles play, and a doubles ranking
of 41.
She has competed in six tournaments -- winning a “few little ones”
-- during the 2002 season and sports a 3-4 record in seven singles
matches, 2-5 in doubles play.
The next tournament she will compete in is the US Open for
Wheelchair Tennis to be held Oct. 8 to 13 at the Barnes Tennis Center
in San Diego.
She has missed just one U.S. Open in the past 10 years.
“I’ve been playing tennis for a very long time and it will always
be a part of my life,” she said. “My goal was to make the 2002
Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, but my priorities have shifted
because my plate is so full right now.”
McKnight is trying, she said, to find a way to find the “perfect”
balance with her full-time job with a brokerage firm, the recent
start of working toward her master’s degree in social work and
combining those two time-consuming aspects with tennis.
Complications from open-heart surgery when she was just three
months old caused McKnight’s paralysis and she has been in a chair
since.
She discovered a liking for wheelchair tennis when she was
introduced, at age 12, to the sport while attending a Jr. Wheelchair
Sports Camp in Grand Rapids, Mich.
That camp, she explained, exposed children in wheelchairs to such
sports as tennis, track and field, swimming and basketball -- each
taught by a wheelchair athlete.
“That camp gave me the opportunity to be exposed, for the first
time, to some good, positive wheelchair athlete role models,” said
McKnight, who eventually gave back to the camp by becoming a camp
counselor. “Those camps really changed my life.”
The Jr. Wheelchair Sports Camp opened up some doors for McKnight,
who entered her first tournament at age 14. She received instruction
from Dan Drobac, the former men’s tennis coach at her alma mater,
Michigan State University and from her early beginnings, has gone on
to compete at a very high level.
Wheelchair tennis, developed in 1976, is under the governing body
of the International Tennis Federation. Tournaments are held annually
both across the nation and worldwide, with ranking held for men and
women both in the U.S. and internationally.
Wheelchair tennis, she said, is one of the fastest growing
wheelchair sports in the world.
Last week Rydberg, currently ranked third among American players
and 12th in the world, was in Italy competing in one of the year’s
biggest wheelchair tennis events, the Citta di Livorno-OSD Trophy
tournament.
McKnight herself has played in tournaments around the world,
hitting the continents of Europe, Asia and South America. But she hit
it big nationally when she showcased her talents at the recent U.S.
Open.
“Wheelchair tennis really has changed my life,” she said. “Doors
have been opened up to me, allowing me to travel the world and meet
some incredible people and athletes. Going to the U.S. Open was a
prime example of that.”
* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at
(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.
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