Archive for June 17, 2010

Wheelchair tennis at NTC II

Jana Hunsaker Memorial Wheelchair tennis tournament at National Tennis Center, June 11, 2010

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Wheelchair tennis at NTC

DSCN6933 GOODThe 2010 Jana Hunsaker Memorial was held last week, June 10-13 at USTA. They had about 54 players competing for US$10,000. Men’s singles champ would take home $1,760 while the Lady’s $1,000. The top 4 gentlemen singles players are

1. Yoshinobu Fujimoto of Japan
2. Yann Mathieu of Canada
3. Paul Moran of USA
4. Stephen Welch of USA

This picture was taken while Paul was playing Joel Dembe in the Quarter final. He beat Joel 6:4, 7:6 (5). Pumpkin balled for the match.

I watched Steve Welch vs Anthony Anderson match. They traded many amazing shots. One of the players who were watching told me that Welch is the top dog in the USA and played a challenge match against Howard Stern the radio host about 4-5 years ago.
“He (Steve) kicked his behind big time.” 🙂

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The wheelchair community is rather and pretty tight knit. Steve and Anthony would high five each other at change overs. At one point, Anthony cried out loud,
“You got to be kidding Steve!!” as he was trying hard but unable to save one of many incredible shots.
The few players I asked, all had played tennis before they became disabled.
“Would a wheelchair player has advantage if he played before became disabled?”
They said it’s a debate.
Oh well ..
There was a big dude in the red t-shirt who was the only one talked about his injury – a fall into a ditch. As an ignorant AB – their way of referring us, the able body – I didn’t know what to think/do around them but curious. In fact, they’re very self efficient and able – dumb of me to even think otherwise. The first day in the parking lot, as players arriving with their gears – sitting in a wheelchair and pushing their tournament wheels, I offered my help timidly: didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Only two players accepted my help.

All grand slams have the top 8 to play. The Wheelchair US Open is held in St Louis each year.

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Stephen Welch at NTC

At Jana Hunsaker Memorial Wheelchair tennis tournament at National Tennis Center, June 11, 2010

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NJ

Our last match on Sunday was again being played indoor at Tri-City. Nadal was demolishing Robin Söderling 6–4, 6–2, 6–4 in Paris.
Our opponent was from the other side of the Hudson River, New Jersey. Their team consisted Chinese too. Paul suggested to me that I should seeking its captain out and get acquaintance for some friendly games in the future: a great idea. When I saw a lady who resembled Paul’s description, I approached her.
“Good morning, are you Sherry?”
“No.” Wow ..
“Oh .. do you know where is she?” Thickening my skin, I persisted.
“Why are you looking for her?” She looked at me with suspicion.
“I’d like to talk to her.” I replied cheerfully.
“What do you want to talk about?” she asked in such rawness, I decided not to pursue any further. It’s so unpleasant.

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NJ has also large Chinese tennis community and they’ve been hosting tournaments for a long time and continusly doing so with great success. Their USTA league participation has produced couple of National Champions.

#1 Doubles Wai Chiu Leong/Mary Wong vs Cheng Mei-Ju Tzeng/Yi Qiu: 6-3 6-1
#2 Doubles Kai H. Chung/Anna Leung Vs. Ban Tran/Jan Kay Smith: 2-6 7-6 1-0
#3 Doubles SEAN YUEN/Irene Lum Vs. Polly Wong/Ronald C. Tai: 6-4 6-1

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Buffalo

After the rain and drama, our second match of the day against Buffalo/Western was played out door as scheduled. Weather turned out to be nice again. Competitive matches with very friendly atmosphere – the way this game should be played.

Friday night the league gave a cocktail party in the afternoon followed with a raffle. There I met my team’s tormentors 🙂 for the first time. The players on the league were mostly veterans, it felt like a big reunion, cozy and jolly. The raffle prizes include from tennis bags to little hand towels. The bag being the more desirable, were gone quickly. It seemed the winner of the raffle could pick and chose. Then a Chinese player from NJ held the winning ticket and he came forward to claim his prize. The presenter was about to give him a towel. Like players before him, he asked for the bag. Unlike the previous ones, the presenter insisted offering him the towel. No one at my table made any comment at all, I wasn’t sure if any of them had seen it. When my ticket was called, almost at the very end, there were only little towel left.

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As if happened, the following day, our last match was against NJ. Paul used to play on their teams so he knew them well. When I chatted with Sherry, they were pretty upset by the raffle episode, feeling being discriminated by the league, often in the past as well.

girls night out .. June 5

We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, as if we don’t have in back home.

#1 Doubles Kelly Z. Draper/Darren J. La Padula Vs. SEAN YUEN/Chin Teng 6-2 6-0
#2 Doubles Mary Wong/Sai Wah Wong vs Becky B. Gennett/Scott P Engleman: 1-6 6-2 1-0
#3 Doubles Kai H. Chung/Anna Leung vs Susan E. Vail/John S Miller 6-4 6-4

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