Fiery Fran has forged a mental steel that opponents will envy
AND so, out of the darkest depths of the longest winter comes a ray of sunshine – Fran Jones and her journey to the Australian Open. Jones’ progression through qualifying into the main draw for next month’s Grand Slam event was a warming tale, with the 20-yearold from Yorkshire making it to Melbourne for the first time – but it was the context that set it apart.
A girl with a rare genetic condition, who was told by doctors at eight years old to forget tennis as a career because she only had three fingers on each hand and was missing three toes, has just blown a deafening raspberry back their way.
It is hard to blame them for doubting her. It isn’t just that she has a finger missing on the hand that grasps the racket. Her right hand itself is also unusually small because of her ectrodactyly ectodermal dysplasia.
Then there is the balance adjustment required without a full complement of toes. It isn’t exactly helpful for a tennis player constantly needing to change direction and set herself for the next shot.
Yet next month she could be taking on Serenawilliams.
With Andy Murray struck down with coronavirus and Kyle Edmund injured, British tennis needed a lift ahead of the first big event of 2021 and, boy, has Jones provided it.
Mainstream sport, naturally, is dominated by those with physical advantages. It is a world built for Atlases.yet there are incredible outliers out there who should, by all logic, never have made it, who have broken in.
Take Shaquem Griffin, the linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.
Griffin was born with a withered left hand, the result of a birth defect.
He had it amputated as a four-year-old after his parents caught him trying to hack it off with a butcher’s knife.
Two years ago, the one-handed Griffin signed a $2.8million contract with the Seahawks.
Or swimmer Natalie du Toit, who competed at the Beijing Olympics despite having her left leg amputated at the knee after being knocked off her scooter by a car as a teenager.then there is Ian
Mckinley, the Irish-italian rugby union player capped nine times by the Azzurri despite losing an eye earlier in his career.
And the surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack yet still competed professionally.
Just occasionally there are bewildering examples of how
sportsmen and women use disability to their advantage. The Indian leg spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar spent three months in hospital as a five-year-old with polio, a condition that was to leave his right arm emaciated.
He discovered that the thinness of his bowling arm gave him an extra degree of flexibility. Fifty-eight Tests and 242 wickets followed. Or Garrincha, Brazil’s knock-kneed wonder dribbler, who shone at two World Cups despite having been born with a deformed spine and a right leg that was six centimetres longer than his left leg.
He used his unconventional set-up to baffle defenders. In 1962, after scoring twice against England in the quarter-final, the angel with the bent legs was named player of the tournament as Brazil retained the Jules Rimet Trophy. Doctors told him to forget football, too.
Spot the link.
THERE is a certain breed of person who, when told they are incapable of doing something, go out of their way to prove otherwise. It takes a stubborn streak a mile wide and an ocean of blood, sweat and tears but for those who manage it, the satisfaction is enormous.
As Jones puts it, ‘the greatest thing in life is to do what people say you can’t do.’
She is a seriously determined young woman.watch and listen to her on court and you can sense the venom within.
She puts her inner fight down to the pain she has gone through to reach where she is. Born with a cleft palate as well, she underwent more than 10 operations in all as a child.
Looking different has not been easy.
She has been forced to put up with the staring, the questions and sometimes the outright nastiness. But her unique experience has forged in her a mental steel that others do not possess.
Too often it has been levelled at British tennis players that they are too soft.that accusation will never be levelled at Fiery Fran.
Her example is both inspiring and timely. However the Australian Open turns out for her, she has already made her point.