Towards an evolution of disabled tennis? Ivan Corretja, world champion of adapted standing tennis, has in any case pleaded for it. The Spaniard deplored, Saturday in an interview with AFP, that the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had become “obsolete”, demanding the opening of tournaments to new categories.
“The ITF (International Tennis Federation) has done a great job with wheelchair tennis for many years. It’s a demonstration, it’s very well accepted. But the truth is that the categories have become obsolete,” he said from New York, where the US Open is taking place.
Only wheelchair tennis is on the programme of the Games
Wheelchair tennis, which entered the Paralympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, is one of the most popular adapted sports, as demonstrated by the tournament at the Paralympic Games in Paris, where the public was out in force at the Roland-Garros site. For example, the Suzanne-Lenglen court was full during the small final of the doubles between the French Stéphane Houdet and Frédéric Cattanéo, or during the men’s final won by the Japanese Tokido Oda against the British Alfie Hewett.
More than thirty years later, this discipline is included in the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour has more than 150 events. While in other Paralympic sports there are several categories to adapt to different disabilities, “tennis players only have the possibility of playing in a wheelchair”, lamented the Spaniard, president of the Para-Standing Tennis Association,
Swimming, cycling, table tennis and athletics, among others, have several categories depending on the disability. “Imagine if athletics at the Paralympic Games were limited to wheelchair athletics. That doesn’t make sense, does it? We are simply asking the ITF to regulate, to make it official,” explained Ivan Corretja.
At least 400 players in more than 30 countries involved
The athlete, who had his left leg amputated in a road accident when he was 15, won the 2024 Para-Standing World Championships in the PST2 category (recognized by the ITF and which includes athletes with an above-knee amputation). He says he is working so that new generations can compete “with a ranking, a calendar and by establishing the different disability categories.”
He is the brother of Alex Corretja, who was world number two in the ATP rankings in 1999, a two-time finalist at Roland Garros (1998, 2001), and is currently one of the faces of tennis in Spain, thanks to his role as a commentator on Eurosport.
Contacted by AFP, the ITF said in a statement that to determine whether other categories should be considered, it must conduct “proper research on the number of athletes and their levels of competition, as well as the number of countries involved.” Currently, the Para-Standing Tennis federation has identified more than 400 players in more than 30 countries.
- RMC Sport
