Tennis clinics for kids with Autism help kick off Delray Beach Open
DELRAY BEACH — Thousands of tennis fans will stream into the Delray Beach Tennis Center starting Monday when the Delray Beach Open begins with its main draw dotted with big American names Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul.
But the event got off to a soaring start along Atlantic Avenue after a weekend of tennis clinics designed for kids with Autism in the shadow of the big stadium.
On Sunday morning, the Florida Atlantic University women's tennis team and rising American tour phenom, Alex Michelsen, worked with reps from “ACEing Autism”.
The founder/head tennis instructor is Richard Spurling, who played tennis at FAU from 1992 to 1996 and now lives in Los Angeles.
On Saturday, “Love Serving Autism” conducted its own Delray Beach Tennis Center clinic, branching out from its every-Saturday session at the Wellington Tennis Center.
There were plenty of high-fives, laughs, well-struck volleys and calories burned from the kids across the two mornings.
“”It feels good to give back,’’ said the 19-year-old Michelson, who lives in Southern California and has climbed to a 75th world ranking. “Even though they have a little disability, it shouldn’t stop them from playing tennis. It was a lot of fun to be out there.’’
Spurling has 137 locations for his clinics in 29 states. In Florida, they are located in Stuart, Weston, Miami Gardens, Naples and Fort Myers. He’s attempting to get a regular clinic at his alma-mater, FAU.
“To have Alex come out, it’s great for him to do this,’’ Spurling said. “He’s had a lot of success in the last 12 months.’’
None more successful than Sunday morning when he exchanged volleys with kids, notably three brothers – Angelo, Max and Valentino. The brothers from Hollywood showed nice touch on Delray’s clay sidecourts.
“The three brothers barely missed a ball,’’ said Michelson, who opens play Tuesday and could face Paul in Thursday’s second round. “They did fantastic. Everyone did a lot better than I thought.”
The FAU players and Michelson stood close to the net on most of the drills with the kids inside the service box. They batted the ball back and forth on a fly and on the bounce and did assorted bouncing the ball off the racket drills.
The one-hour clinic started with warmups as kids ran laps around the court’s circumference, did jumping jacks and a hopping drill.
It was a 10-kid clinic. By policy, there’s a tennis volunteer for each player. Its motto is allowing children with autism to have fun while learning the sport of tennis, improving their motor and social skills, and hand-eye coordination.
According to the organization’s spokesperson, Mylene Martin, tennis lends itself best.
“It’s amazing to me,’’ Spurling said. “Having families come out and watch their kids run around and have fun, it means everything to me. That’s what gets me up every day.’’
FAU captain Amber McGuiness said her teammates weren’t passing up this opportunity.
“Part of the tennis team, we want to help out the kids in the community,’’ McGuiness said. “It’s a great event to help the kids have fun, exercise, make them feel happy and helping them love the sport.’’
The FAU team has also worked at Wellington Tennis Center for the other organization, Love Serving Autism. At Wellington, the three tennis coaches, Bill Sanis, head coach at Cardinal Newman, Jamila Nadal and Delica Williams volunteer to work with the kids every Saturday.
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Sanis, who has taught tennis for 50 years, said, “You just want to help these special kids.’’
A native of England, Spurling hopes to keep the ACEing Autism growing. “It’s great to get our name out there, create awareness and offer a free clinic so families know we have this in the area,’’ Spurling said. “It’s a small community, the autism community.’’
Tournament competition opens Monday at Delray Beach Tennis Center
As for the tournament, the qualifier ended Sunday. The weekend’s doubles exhibition lost a key figure when Instagram star Eugenie Bouchard pulled out with an injury, a tournament official said. Kevin Anderson was added to the mix in Bouchard’s place to play a singles match vs. Tommy Haas.
In Saturday’s doubles exhibition, Bob Bryan//Mike Bryan (USA) beat Haas/Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-3 and Ivo Karlovic/Clervie Ngounoue topped Luke Jensen/Murphy Jensen 6-2, 6-4.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Alex Michelsen, FAU women's tennis players help 'ACEing Autism' clinic
