MIAMI – The Miami Open is showcasing its initially wheelchair tennis invitational.
CBS Sports Miami’s Trish Chirstakis was at the matches and shares the touching tales these athletes consider with them on the courts.
“We place in so substantially work and it really is seriously essential for folks to see that and do not see the wheelchair just about, of training course, they’re there and we have to have them but ideally they can see past it and see that we’re athletes,” mentioned Diede de Groot.
De Groot is the recent quantity a single in equally singles and doubles for wheelchair tennis and a 39-time main champion, a sport that improved her life.
“Seeking again, it gave me the chance to delight in currently being lively in a way that other sports wouldn’t give me… mainly because I constantly experienced a downside, but wheelchair tennis gave me the possibility to be just like other little ones.”
Alfie Hewett has been actively playing wheelchair tennis because he was 8 decades aged. It assisted his mental overall health as a child and hopes to inspire younger kids seeing now.
“For a youthful disabled child coming out the grounds these days to view some wheelchair tennis that could be the moment they make your mind up to engage in and the rest can be record,” claimed Hewett.
Enthusiasts I spoke to these days were moved.
“Wow. So outstanding, it makes you a lot more of an athlete, not fewer at all. It makes them additional!” mentioned one fan.
A little something the director of the function, Shingo Kunieda, a four-time Paralympic gold medalist and winner of 28 main titles was hoping enthusiasts would witness though at the Miami Open up.
