Howard Beach resident Angelo Cardinale loves the game of tennis. However, for him, the game is a little different. Cardinale plays the game from his wheelchair.
Recently, he and more than 50 other wheelchair-bound players participated in the 9th Annual Jana Hunsaker Memorial Wheelchair Tennis Tournament at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Hunsaker was the director of the wheelchair tennis program at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park center until her death in 2000. She was responsible for the weekly tennis clinics that trained players like Cardinale leading up to the tournament. Aki Takayama-Wolfson, her protégé, has run both ever since. The four-day event was named for Hunsaker in 2001. This year, the prize money totaled $10,000.
“When Jana ran the event,” said Takayama-Wolfson, “there were only a handful of people. We’ve since tripled that.” The courts are donated to the event and everyone involved with putting it together are volunteers, totaling 75. The ball kids are the same that serve the U.S. Open. “Players tell me the ball kids are outstanding.”
Registration is open to participants of all ages; there is a D-Division for people interested in “getting their feet wet.” The only difference between wheelchair tennis and “able-bodied” tennis is that players are allowed two bounces of the ball instead of one.
The international competition has gained a large following over time. “There are three Frenchmen who come back every year,” Takayama-Wolfson said. They only come to the United States for this particular tournament.
The stateside players included Cardinale, as well as 16-year-old Dylan Levine of Paramus, NJ and 18-year-old Dana Mathewson of San Diego, CA. Mathewson grew up playing soccer, until transverse myelitis, a disease brought on by inflammation of the spinal cord, suddenly caused her to become paralyzed. She didn’t want to play wheelchair tennis at first; in fact, she wanted nothing to do with wheelchair sports of any kind.
“My mom dragged me kicking and screaming to tennis camp,” Mathewson said. Now, she’s one of three players on the women’s team competing with the United States for the 2009 World Team Cup, an event in August in Nottingham, U.K.
Levine, too, is competing with the United States for the World Team Cup, on the junior team. He noted that this sport has a great sense of community, as the competitive circuit is so small. Because of this, the other players become your “second family.”
“It’s an excellent program,” Cardinale concluded. “It’s very therapeutic.”
Results of the competition can be found at
https://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=78010
