June 24, 2008

HEAD Wheelchair Players Have Solid Showing at World Team Cup in Italy

The nation's top wheelchair tennis players competed against participants from 34 countries, June 9th - 15th at the Invacare World Team Cup in Cermona, Italy.

HEAD sponsored players representing the United States and contributing to the team's success included:

#13 John Rydberg (Men) --
#13 Beth Arnoult (Women) -- Head Airflow 3
#1 David Wagner (Quad) -- Head Flexpoint Instinct
#3 Taylor (Quad) -- Head Metallix 10
#13 Dylan Levine (Junior) -- Head MicroGEL Raptor MidPlus
Coach Dan James (Men, entire team) -- Head MicroGel Instinct
Coach Paul Walker (Women) -- Head MicroGel Radical Pro

The favored and undefeated US Quad Team dominated and made their way to the finals where they were upset 2-1 in an extremely close match with Team Netherlands. The US Women's Team had a solid showing where they made it to the semi-finals and lost a close 2-1 to Team Netherlands finishing the tournament in 4th place. The US Junior Team finished in 4th place with a tough match against Team Argentina. The US Men's Team reached the 2nd round where they were defeated by Team Netherlands.

HEAD Players will compete in the 2008 Wheelchair Tennis Paralympics events, which will run for eight days at the Beijing Olympic Tennis Centre, September 8-15. HEAD players will include John Rydberg (Men), Beth Arnoult (Women), David Wagner (Quad), Nick Taylor (Quad) and Coach Dan James.

About Wheelchair Tennis
Wheelchair tennis is played on a standard tennis court and follows many of the same rules as tennis. However, in wheelchair tennis, a player is allowed to let the ball bounce twice, not once, before hitting a return shot. Also, the athlete's wheelchair is considered to be a part of the body, so rules applying to the player's body apply to the chair as well. Paralympic wheelchair tennis competition is open to male and female athletes in the categories for amputees and spinal cord injured/wheelchair.