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.