Article 07 May 2020
On 17 July 1976, Californian teenager Brad Parks’ life would change forever. While competing in a freestyle skiing event in Utah, the 18-year-old – who had designs on a professional career in the sport – overthrew a back layout flip and was left paralysed. Lying in hospital thinking about the future, he began to think about what he could still do and what games he could play with his able-bodied friends, setting in motion the course of events that led to the birth of wheelchair tennis.
Sufficed to say, the sport has come a long way since his first attempts at playing with his parents shortly after leaving hospital. Over the next four decades, Parks’ role in driving the sport towards its status as a Grand Slam and Paralympic event played the world over cannot be overstated.
Every aspect of the sport bears his fingerprints, from the two-bounce rule devised with Jeff Minnebraker, who developed the sport’s first tennis-specific chairs, to the barnstorming promotional campaign he drove across the United States from 1980 that went on to become an international movement.
Parks won the first US Open wheelchair tennis title that same year, beating fellow American Randy Snow. The duo became fierce rivals, and partnered each other just once, winning the men’s doubles gold as wheelchair tennis made its Paralympic debut in Barcelona in 1992, the point that Parks decided to hang up his racquet.
In the 28 years that have followed, wheelchair tennis has continued to go from strength to strength to become one of the world’s leading Paralympic sports and a fully-fledged Grand Slam discipline, with men’s, women’s and quad wheelchair events played at all four majors for the first time in 2019.
“The sport has achieved more than I thought possible,” admits Parks, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010. “I have to say that the ITF, the USTA and the National Associations have done a remarkable job of helping grow the game. I did not think it was possible that wheelchair tennis would be run by the national tennis bodies – this was unthinkable in the 70's and 80's.
“I never expected wheelchair tennis to be in the Paralympics, the Grand Slams or the International Tennis is Hall of Fame, so it is way past what I could have imagined.”
Today, wheelchair tennis features stars of the sport from all corners of the globe, from Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Diede de Groot of the Netherlands, to Japanese duo Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji and Australia’s Dylan Alcott to name but a few. Technology has moved on too, with chairs increasingly light and mobile alongside advances in racquet, string and training technologies.
So how would Brad Parks in his prime have fared against the current generation?
“That is really hard for me to say, and maybe for someone else to figure out,” said the 63-year-old. “But I am very impressed with the quality of play today. The sport has progressed so much, the knowledge and teaching has improved, and equipment has come a long way. The players are true committed professional athletes.
“It's really a different game in so many ways. But, like the abled-bodied game, comparing the video footage of players from the late 1970's into the early 80's to today is very different. Yet, I think most great athletes in all sports would have most likely been great regardless of the time in history they played.”
For his part, Parks loves watching Fernandez and Kunieda, and followed the career of Esther Vergeer, the Dutch wheelchair tennis sensation who won a staggering 305 singles and doubles titles during her career, including 44 Grand Slams and seven Paralympic golds.
“Gustavo is maybe my favourite,” Parks admits. “They all have such determination and have all the shots and are so strong. They are also such committed professional tennis players who happen to play from a wheelchair.”
While central to the success of wheelchair tennis, particularly in its formative years, Parks is keen to stress that the sport would not have reached the standing it enjoys today without the efforts of an army of dedicated proponents. From Minnebraker’s early technical assistance and instructional input from Bill Frantz and Vic Braden, to meeting John Newcombe at an exhibition event, whose invitation to Australia led to his first meeting with his future wife, Wendy.
Charlie Pasarell was instrumental in Parks’ early networking with the USTA and later the ITF, who he convinced to hire Ellen de Lange, then one of the top wheelchair tennis players in the world. It is telling that, for all his personal accolades, Parks wrote in 2016 that “maybe my greatest achievement was the hiring of Ellen.”
Netherlands’ De Lange “for sure has had the greatest impact on our sport,” Parks said. “It really amazes me what she has accomplished for the sport – her longevity as the sport’s leader for one thing. When she was hired by the ITF she sat at her desk the first day and said, ‘Okay, now what do I do?’ At the time she was one of the best players in the world. She set that aside to take wheelchair tennis to the next level.
“She led the sport like no-one else could at that time: wheelchair tennis administrated by the national tennis governing bodies; developing the WTC into a major international wheelchair sports event; helping to bring wheelchair tennis into the Paralympics; developing an international tour with rankings; helping bring wheelchair tennis into the Grand Slams; and helping to bring wheelchair tennis into the Hall of fame are just some of her accomplishments.”
As for others who deserve to be recognised in that same bracket, Parks paid tribute to his one-time nemesis Randy Snow, who passed away in 2009.
“As a player and coach, he had a tremendous impact on the sport,” Parks said. “He was so inspirational and committed to being the best – he was a true student of the game, then after he retired, he became the greatest teacher of the game. He and Bal Moore produced the greatest instructional book on the sport, with techniques and drills that will last for many years.”
A sport born out of adversity some 54 years ago, wheelchair tennis has changed the lives of athletes the world over, its impact stretching far further than Parks could ever have imagined from his hospital bed. As for the future, he has his own thoughts on what he would like to see next from the game.
“I would like to see more great wheelchair tennis tournaments be more well-known on their own merit, not as part of the pro game,” Parks said when asked about his hopes for the future. “Our US Open in the 1980s and 90s were a real ‘happening’ – all the players and people of the sport were there each year.
“I would love to see the athletes become more well-known worldwide, and appreciated for not only their life story but their extreme talents as athletes. I would love to have live-streaming to a point where fans could tune in on a regular basis to the most important wheelchair tennis events. And I would love to see more spectators attend and follow our players and the sport. This, with more interest from sponsors and media coverage, would help take wheelchair tennis to the next level.”
