Intermountain / Colorado

Junior wheelchair players taking tennis world by storm

Rachel Morley | December 02, 2022


 

Newcomers Sabina Czauz and Tomas Majetic are helping to lead wheelchair tennis into the future

 

This has been an historic year for junior wheelchair tennis in the United States. In August, the prestigious Boys 18s National Championships in Kalamazoo hosted a wheelchair round-robin exhibition featuring four players, all ranked in the top 40 in the world. Just weeks later, the US Open became the first major to have a junior wheelchair tennis division. 

 

Colorado, quickly becoming a hotbed for junior wheelchair tennis, was represented by two 15-year-olds, Tomas Majetic in Kalamazoo, and Sabina Czauz at the US Open. And, to think that neither one had played tennis before 2020!

 

The meteoric rise of both Tomas and Sabina started in the spring of 2020 when Tomas, like many 13-year-olds, was trying to find a way to keep playing sports, stay active and hang out with other kids in the middle of the pandemic. With gyms being closed, it was a challenge for Tomas, an accomplished wheelchair basketball player. Fortunately, Kendall Chitambar, Director of Tennis at Rocky Mountain Tennis Center (RMTC) in Boulder, had started a junior wheelchair tennis program just a year before. Being local to the area, Tomas decided to try out the program, which at the time, was a two-hour clinic, once a month that rotated between four clubs in the Denver Metro area.

 

“Right away, I loved the feeling of hitting the ball,” said Tomas. He enjoyed tennis so much, that he started recruiting other kids from his wheelchair basketball organization, one of whom was Sabina Czauz. Like Tomas, Sabina was hooked from the start.

 

“We were really lucky to have kids like Tomas and Sabina in our program,” says Chitambar. “I could see how much fun they were having and how committed they were, so I asked if they would want to add in sessions and, with the positive response, we grew to two clinics per week.”

 

Chitambar knew he had something special in Tomas and Sabina and told them he wanted to include them in his High Performance Tennis Program. They both agreed and, within 18 months, had gone from training one day per week to five days per week. 

 

Chitambar also decided to bring in the assistance of Scott Douglas, a tennis bronze medalist at the 2000 Paralympic Games, who is now an Associate Professor at the University of Northern Colorado focusing on coaching expertise and coaching education. After seeing the rapid rise in development of the wheelchair players at RMTC, Scott committed to regularly making the hour plus drive from Greeley to Boulder and ultimately became one of Tomas’s traveling coaches. 

 

“My role with Tomas is to be not only his tennis coach, but his mentor and friend. I have been where he wants to go as a player and I try to share my experiences as a Paralympic athlete with him whenever I can – on and off the court,” says Douglas. 

 

Tomas’s hard work and dedication was catching the attention of coaches at the USTA National Tennis Center in Orlando, and he was named as one of four players to represent the US at the BNP World Team Cup event in Portugal this past May. The team placed 4th and it was an amazing experience for Tomas. 

 

“Vilamoura, Portugal is my favorite place I have gotten to travel to for tennis and I am really grateful to have met the other competitors from all over the world,” he says.

 

Meanwhile, back in Colorado, Sabina was making her own history as the first-ever student-athlete to play Colorado high school girl’s tennis. As a freshman, Sabina was part of the No. 1 doubles team for Northglenn High School, compiling a 6-1 record and qualifying for Regionals. Diane Wolverton, Head Tennis Coach for Northglenn, says “Sabina came out her freshman year and I knew right away that she was a force to be reckoned with. She is a strong, smart, intelligent, kind, funny student athlete and our team is better with her.”

 

While playing high school tennis, Sabina continued to train at Rocky Mountain Tennis Center 4-5 days a week, and Chitambar says that by the end of the high school season, “Sabina was a new player”. As with Tomas, Sabina’s quickly rising talent level was recognized by the USTA. 

 

“It was the Monday of Labor Day weekend, and I got a call from USTA National,” says Chitambar. “They told me that one of the girls in the US Open Wheelchair Tournament draw had to pull out and they chose Sabina to take her place, in part because of all of the hard work that she had been putting in to her game. I immediately called Sabina’s family and told them the news. It was an amazing moment, and they were on a plane Tuesday morning heading to New York.”

 

Sabina definitely made the most of the whirlwind trip and her experience. She says “I got to play the No. 4 junior wheelchair girl in the world and also got to meet (US Open women’s singles champion) Iga Swiatek. It was awesome!”

 

As fall came and both kids settled back into school, their tennis training didn’t slow down. Both continued to work with Chitambar and Douglas while Tomas’s coaching team also included Andy Bachmann and Oscar Valenzuela. Douglas recently accompanied Tomas to Alabama where he got to see him win his first ITF Wheelchair Junior Championship, which included wins over the top two seeds. 

 

Tomas says, “It was a great tournament overall and having my coach Scott there really helped me and I could not have done it without him.” 

 

Douglas was thrilled to see him win the title and says “In my opinion, one of the main reasons he is starting to jump up the world rankings so quickly is his application on court of the coaching he is receiving – technically and strategically. On court, he has grown from his experiences as a young player making a lot of unforced errors and trying to hit highlight winning shots the pros are hitting, to becoming a more patient, consistent, and thoughtful all-around tennis player. With each training session and match, he continues to learn and develop his game – and confidence. On top of that, at the Alabama Open, I had no less than 10 different parents, officials, and other more experienced Open players compliment me on not only his improved play, but “what a nice kid” he is.”

 

It has been an incredible few years for these two, and the future is sure to bring more success. Both are currently ranked in the top 25 internationally (Tomas is 25th and Sabina is 21st) and each continues to work on their game to see how far they can go with tennis. And while both are talented tennis players, all of their coaches talk about what exceptional people they are. 

 

Chitambar says “Tomas is an unreal athlete but it his unlimited dedication and how he listens to others both on and off the court that truly impresses me. Sabina is just an amazing person with a quiet but burning determination. And while both of them are only 15, they are already giving back to the sport by volunteering at various wheelchair tennis events, including the Colorado Youth Wheelchair Sports Camp.

 

The future of junior wheelchair tennis is definitely bright with Tomas and Sabina leading the way!

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