Wheelchair tennis celebrates 50 years and a new wave of popularity

Amna Nawaz:

This week, professional wheelchair tennis players are competing for their countries, part of the World Team Cup at the U.S. Tennis Association's national campus in Orlando. It's all part of the 50th anniversary of the sport's creation and comes at a time when popularity is growing.

I recently took a close-up look at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, for our ongoing coverage of the culture of sport, part of our Canvas series.

All the agility, speed, and power of tennis supercharged on two wheels.

(Cheering)

Amna Nawaz:

The sport of wheelchair tennis has come a very long way in just 50 years.

Brad Parks, Wheelchair Tennis Co-Founder:

Everybody, they're just so darn good. I mean, it's just so fantastic to see how it has progressed and improved over the years.

Amna Nawaz:

Brad Parks, who founded the sport back in 1976, has a lot to celebrate. Today, wheelchair tennis is in more top-tier professional tournaments than ever before, including all four Grand Slams. A player development pipeline is being built, and sponsorships and broadcast deals mean the fan base continues to grow.

Parks himself never expected to be here after being paralyzed in a freestyle skiing accident at the age of 18.

Brad Parks:

Somebody came and told me about wheelchair basketball when I was in the hospital. And I'm thinking, well, if you play wheelchair basketball, why can't you play tennis? And tennis was on my mind because I wanted to be a better tennis player than I was.

Sliding into a shot, hitting a ball, recovering, coming back around, that whole feeling of movement and everything else is really, really great.

Amna Nawaz:

Acceptance was built one match at a time.

Brad Parks:

When I was first injured, we would go to a tennis court, and sometimes the pro would come over and go, what are you guys doing? Everybody was always worried we were going to damage the courts. And they -- we weren't really even accepted. Nobody could believe that we were actually wheelchair athletes, that we were athletes.

Amna Nawaz:

The game differs slightly from the able-bodied sport. Players use the same courts, balls, and rackets, but they're allowed two bounces of the ball. The chair is considered part of the player's body. So the same rules that apply to the body in able-bodied tennis apply to the chair.

Dana Mathewson was the first American woman to win a major wheelchair tennis title, the 2022 Wimbledon doubles championship. She retired in 2024 ranked number one in the U.S. and number seven in the world. She left the court at the top of her game, but found a new role just a few feet away, hosting and commentating.

Seven years ago, when you last spoke to us, you had this to say. I want to put it back to you now and get your reaction.

Dana Mathewson, Professional Wheelchair Tennis Player:

That's crazy it was seven years ago.

Amna Nawaz:

I know. You said: "The more and more I get exposed to different things..."

Dana Mathewson:

The more that I realize that I can do with this disability and the things that it's afforded in my life.

Amna Nawaz:

"The more I actually feel really grateful for it."

You still feel that way?

Dana Mathewson:

It's a hot take, isn't it?

(Laughter)

Dana Mathewson:

Yes. I would be lying to you if I said that I woke up every day and I saw my chair and I was like, yay. Like, that's kind of -- that's a reach.

But the sentiment of what I said definitely still rings true. I think that I can guarantee that, without a disability, I wouldn't have been a professional athlete. I wouldn't have represented my country. I wouldn't have set records within a sport. I wouldn't have got the opportunity to do things like this. I wouldn't get to be an advocate for a marginalized group of people.

Amna Nawaz:

Advocating for and mentoring the next generation of players.

Did you have the kind of mentors when you were coming up that you're trying to be for them now?

Dana Mathewson:

I want to say yes, but the honest answer is not really. When I first started and I went to my first ever wheelchair tennis camp, there were a couple Paralympians that I met, and they made such an impact on me, but I only got to see them for that week.

The little amount that I had was so impactful to me that, if I can do that for someone else, that that means more to me than any -- it sounds cliche, but, honestly, I mean it -- any Slams or anything like that.

Amna Nawaz:

Among the sport's new stars, Japan's Tokito Oda, a 20-year-old with multiple sponsors who's known as much for his sartorial flair as he is for his killer serve.

Oda was just 17 when he won the French Open in 2023, becoming the youngest man ever to win a Grand Slam title. He's now number one in the world, and he came to talk to us as the sun went down after another victory.

Wheelchair tennis has been around for longer than you have been alive.

Tokito Oda, Professional Wheelchair Tennis Player:

Yes.

(Laughter)

Amna Nawaz:

Right? But it's still pretty young in terms of a sport. How did you first come to play this sport?

Tokito Oda:

Yes, when I was 10, I started tennis, but I got cancer when I was 9, and I was in like A hospital, like around the one year. During the hospital, I saw the singles playing. Two days later that I get out of the hospital, I visit the people who play wheelchair tennis. And then I started as soon as possible.

Amna Nawaz:

Oda has seen the game grow even over his lifetime. But he says, here in the U.S., it has a long way to go. Back home in Japan, he's used to much bigger crowds.

Tokito Oda:

Yes, I mean, when I play the last year, I played at Tokyo, and it was like over 7,000 people was in the final match.

Amna Nawaz:

Seven thousand people?

Tokito Oda:

Seven thousand was there, even like at Monday 10:00 a.m.

Martina Navratilova knows a thing or two about attracting crowds with 59 Grand Slam titles, including 18 in singles, 31 in doubles, and 10 in mixed doubles. She played an exhibition with Oda as her teammate.

Martina Navratilova, Former Professional Tennis Player:

They hit the ball so well. So it's astonishing to be -- and I actually sat in a wheelchair trying to hit, and it's -- so hat off. And it's great to see that growth. And now they're getting inducted in the Hall of Fame.

And it's all good, and people are watching, because it's worth watching. They put on a good show.

Amna Nawaz:

Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands has been playing since she was 10, the same year her leg was amputated after multiple surgeries to address a birth defect were unsuccessful.

Aniek Van Koot, Professional Wheelchair Tennis Player:

This is not just a game anymore. It's my job. I live and breathe tennis every day. I train every day. I think about tennis every day. I dream about tennis. It's a profession.

Amna Nawaz:

Over her career, van Koot has reached number one in the world in both singles and doubles. She's watched more people discover the game, but says there's still work to be done.

What do you think the sport needs?

Aniek Van Koot:

I think more broadcasting on TV. A lot of people see, like, we don't see you on the news, and I didn't know that you were playing a World Masters championship or a Grand Slam. I'm like, yes, because you didn't see it. You didn't see it on the news.

Amna Nawaz:

In the past, players say exposure from Paralympic Games sparked a surge in popularity for wheelchair tennis, Wimbledon after the 2012 London Games, the French Open after the 2024 Paris Games. They're hoping the Los Angeles 2028 Games could do the same here in America.

Brad Parks:

When you go to Wimbledon, the wheelchair tennis matches are packed, and we're not there yet here. But they're there in London, and I think 2012 Paralympics made that -- helped encourage that. There was a lot of exposure on TV. There was a lot going on.

And I think maybe L.A. might do that for us in the United States. I'd like to see us where they're coming, and they're not just coming to cheer on the tennis, the wheelchair tennis. They are coming on because they want this guy to beat this guy or this girl to beat this girl, or whatever. They want to see a fight and a battle. They want to see the action.

Announcer:

Game, set, match Inoue/Knoesen two sets to love.

(Applause)