First-timer Phelps to join Mathewson, Ratzlaff, Stroud and Wagner on U.S. Paris Paralympic tennis team

First-time selection Maylee Phelps, 17, will join Paralympic veterans Dana Mathewson, Casey Ratzlaff, Conner Stroud and David Wagner at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. 

The U.S. Paralympic tennis team was announced in full on Thursday, and it will consist of four singles players—Mathewson, Ratzlaff, Stroud and Wagner—in the men's, women's and quad competitions, as well as the doubles teams of Mathewson and Phelps and Ratzlaff and Stroud.

The 2024 Paralympic Games will be held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in Paris, with the tennis competition taking place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 7 on the clay courts of Roland Garros.

The five-player team will hope to return the U.S. to the Paralympic podium, and add to its overall haul of 17 all-time medals, after it was shut out of medals in Tokyo in 2021. It was the first time that the Americans didn't medal since wheelchair tennis official joined the Paralympic Games in 1992 after being a demonstration sport in 1988. 

Leading the way is Wagner, who at age 50 is competing in his sixth Games. He has won eight Paralympic medals in his career, including four in quad singles, in his legendary career which also includes 29 Grand Slam titles. But a quad singles gold has eluded him: His three gold medals all came in doubles (2004 Athens; 2008 Beijing; 2012 London) with partner Nick Taylor. He will be competing in singles only.

Mathewson, the first American woman to ever win a Grand Slam title in wheelchair tennis, is competing in her third Games, while Ratzlaff and Stroud each return to the Games after making their Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago.

Paralympic rookie Phelps, meanwhile, is making her transition to the professional game after having a stellar junior career that included time as the world No. 1, and two junior US Open doubles titles. 

The teams will be coached by John Devorss and Jon Rydberg, who are both making their debuts as Paralympic coaches. Rydberg is a four-time Paralympian, while Devorss is a longtime U.S. World Team Cup (the wheelchair equivalent of Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup) coach. Both coached the U.S. teams at the 2023 Parapan American Games, where Phelps and Mathewson notably won the gold medal in women's doubles.