Two of the sport's pioneers are inducted into tennis' Hall of Fame
NEWPORT — A prolific women’s winner and a men’s pioneer — both from the wheelchair division — highlighted Saturday’s induction ceremonies at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Esther Vergeer captured grand slam titles in the singles and doubles ranks by the dozens. Her opportunity to run up such an impressive career total likely would not have come to fruition without the efforts of folks like Rick Draney.
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They shared the stage at the Newport Casino to highlight the weekend’s events here. Vergeer retired a decade ago despite a 470-match winning streak in singles — it's safe to say she exited on top. Draney was a former top-ranked singles and doubles player in the quad division who mastered a racket-taping technique to assist players with limited hand function.
“It’s the biggest honor you can have as an athlete,” Vergeer said. “As a person, it’s an amazing compliment for the results I had in tennis.”
“I have never been to a fantasy camp, but if you took every fantasy camp around the world and put them all together, this would still blow them away,” Draney said. “This fantasy, this dream, is becoming a reality for me.”
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Vergeer suffered from vascular myelopathy as a child, an abnormality in the spinal cord that limits blood supply. Strokes and surrounding tissue damage are the greatest risk to those diagnosed and the ensuing corrective surgery left Vergeer paralyzed from the waist down. She gravitated to multiple sports as a teenager in the Netherlands — tennis eventually won out over volleyball and basketball.
“Tennis has changed my life,” Vergeer said. “It gave me confidence. It made me the person I am today.”
Vergeer’s run of dominance from 1999 to 2013 is staggering. She captured singles titles at the Australian Open nine times and at both the French and U.S. Opens six times. Vergeer was a four-time singles gold medalist in the Paralympic Games, winning in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
Vergeer also took charge of the doubles ranks, sweeping the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. crowns in 2009 and 2011. She took home 19 additional doubles grand slam titles and three more Paralympic doubles golds in 2000, 2004 and 2012. Her combined career record in singles and doubles stands at 1,141-60.
“Now when people repeat those numbers, I’m like, ‘Whoa,’ ” Vergeer said. “It all happened so fast. Sometimes when you’re playing, you’re not realizing what the numbers are. I wasn’t playing for those.”
Draney suffered serious injuries in a car accident at 19 and became a quadriplegic. His first real tennis experience happened three years later through a class at Saddleback College in suburban Los Angeles. That was in 1984. Wheelchair tennis was first played at grand slam events in 2002.
“To reflect and say that I’m envious I didn’t get a chance is not the right vision and not the vision that I take,” Draney said. “It’s to think that I’m still part of that process. It is happening in some part because of my efforts, and I take immense pride in that.”
Draney was the No. 1 player in the quad division when it was formally recognized by the International Tennis Federation in 1998. He won a pair of World Team Cup titles with the United States and a combined 20 singles and doubles titles in the Super Series. Draney was also an international rugby player who captured Paralympic gold with the Americans in 2000.
“Tennis for me was the catalyst that got me thinking about the future,” Draney said. “Not just the day-to-day but down the road — the possibilities that might exist.”
Vergeer and Draney arrived late in the week for multiple days of events. They took a museum tour on Friday and were formally honored at an outdoor induction ceremony the following evening. Brad Parks, Randy Snow, Chantal Vandierendonck, David Hall and Monique Kalkman-Van Den Bosch have new company among the hall’s wheelchair division inductees.
“People will read about me, about the development I went through as an athlete, about the development of wheelchair tennis,” Vergeer said. “I can be a little part of what’s going to be there for the upcoming years. It’s huge.”
“It has been incredibly rewarding for me to think that maybe I’ve been some small part of that journey,” Draney said. “I fully recognize it was a collective journey of a lot of people. Great to be where we are now today.”
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Tennis Hall of Fame welcomes Esther Vergeer and Rick Draney
