Summer of Tennis Wraps up at US Open for Ratzlaff

Casey Ratzlaff has definitely racked up a ton of airline miles in the past few months. 

The summer of 2021 has been a whirlwind for the Wichita native. His Summer of Tennis journey culminates at the US Open, where the wheelchair portion of the tournament begins September 9.

The 22-year-old also made his Paralympic debut this summer. Ratzlaff cruised to a win over France’s Frederic Cattaneo with a straight-set victory, 6-2, 7-5, in his Olympic singles opener. Ratzlaff was able to break Cattaneo’s serve eight times and hit 29 winners in his debut. 

Extreme heat was a factor during the Paralympic Games - with first round matches being pushed back several hours due to the hot temperatures - which reached well above 90 degrees. 

He and 21-year-old Connor Stroud came out a bit sluggish in the opening round of the doubles competition, but found a way to come out victorious over Leon Els and Evans Maripa of South Africa, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. The unseeded duo dropped a tight first set in a long 2 hour, 47 minute match. Ratzlaff and Stroud trailed 5-2 in the first set before rallying to even the set at 5-5. The pair broke serve five times across the second and third sets to advance to the second round.

Ratzlaff fell in the second round in both singles and doubles in straight sets. He faced Belgian Joachim Gerard in singles, who won two Grand Slam titles in 2021.

From Tokyo, he headed straight to New York for the Open, where he earned a wild card into the eight-player field as the top-ranked American player. In the first round he faces top-seeded Shingo Kunieda from Japan. Kunieda is coming off Paralympic gold in Tokyo.

Before the Paralympics, Ratzlaff - ranked No. 23 in the world in singles - also played at events in Turkey, France and the Czech Republic. He reached the semi-finals of the Czech Open in his final tournament before the Paralympics.