Wheelchair no obstacle to top-rate court skills

WHEN I went to interview Marshall Marsh last week ahead of the Acsa Eastern Cape Wheelchair Open tennis tournament, starting tomorrow, I was glad I was in my work clothes. Had I been wearing sports clothes, I would surely have been embarrassed after presumptuously saying to Marsh’s coach, Hennie de Klerk: “Can he beat me?”

Being a polite man, De Klerk suggested that would be a challenge for Marsh. “You have played quite a bit of tennis,” De Klerk said to me.

Well, after watching Marsh stroke the ball in a warm-up, and knowing how I hit the ball, I have no doubt that my somewhat ageing legs and, at best, workmanlike game would have been no match for the wheelchair ace.

Marsh, with a strong upper body from doing sports like powerlifting, gave the ball a powerful thump and was less than perturbed when I suggested that I would catch him with my deadly drop shot.

“Hey coach, hit me a drop shot,” he called to De Klerk, and then rocketed forward in his wheelchair to take the ball on the second bounce. “Ha, into the open court,” he laughed, as he smashed the ball down the line.

Allowing the ball to bounce twice is the only concession to wheelchair players, although Marsh hits the ball with such pace that the second bounce is almost superfluous. But the interesting part came when De Klerk strapped me into a wheelchair, handed me a racket and said: “You try.”

It was all too much for me and a new respect for wheelchair tennis players, and other sportsmen for that matter, was instantly established.

With some of the country’s top players here from tomorrow, do yourself a favour and make an effort to watch some remarkable sportsmen and women in action.