'This is their event': Adaptive National Championships keeps evolving in 2024

For three weeks this summer, the US Open showcased the power of tennis in many ways, chiefly through a myriad of on-site activities and events that proved that the sport, truly, is for everyone. And that momentum continued at the USTA National Campus last week, as players from around the country flocked to Orlando to compete in the 2024 Adaptive Tennis National Championships.

This year's national tournament saw 25 unified doubles teams—pairs comprised of an adaptive athlete and a unified partner, or a person without an intellectual or developmental disability—from 10 USTA sections compete. But the annual national tournament is not just an avenue to reward the best players, but showcase the rapidly-expanding adaptive tennis community.

According to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC), up to 1 in 4 people in the U.S., or 27% of all residents, have some form of a disability. Five hundred adaptive tennis programs registered with the USTA around the country cater to people with disabilities, a population that, historically, has had their health and wellness needs overlooked, by providing them an outlet to pick up a racquet, get on the court, build community and improve their overall health. 

Many involved in the championships echoed the refrain that the end result of a win or a loss was secondary for these athletes, with tournament director Nancy Wilkins says that tennis is "the vehicle" for "better health and well-being, physically, emotionally and mentally."

"This is not our event," Wilkins said. "This is their event."

But adaptive tennis doesn't just benefit its players. Arizona's John Perry, who made history with his student Juan Pablo Lopez as the first unified doubles team from the Southwest section to qualify for nationals, said his "whole world has opened up" by being an adaptive tennis coach. 

"Tennis has been a vehicle for him, on and off the courts, and him doing this right now, it's something maybe [he] couldn't have done before," Perry said. "Being confident on court, seeing the score, being out there on a match by yourself, [is] relatively new and it's been fantastic to see that development."

A new addition to the national championships this year was a facilitator workshop, which kicked off the three-day event and was aimed at teaching aspiring adaptive tennis providers the skills necessary to teach tennis to para-standing athletes, as well as those with blindness and/or visual impairments, or cognitive and/or developmental disabilities.