USTA National Campus hosts its first blind and visually-impaired tennis tournament

Blind tennis is categorized into four levels: B1 through B4 and B5. Players in a B1 sight classification have no sight, and are allowed up to three bounces before hitting the ball. The game is played either on a badminton court, or within the service courts of a regulation-size tennis court. A specially-adapted sponge ball, that has a noise-making device like bells inside of it, is used, as are smaller-sized tennis racquets. All of this was on display at the Campus on Feb. 24 and 25; in addition to on-court demonstrations, the Campus conference held educational sessions that shared best practices for blind and visually-impaired tennis programming, research on new balls, and the state of the sport globally. 

For BVI players Chuck Gottus and Maggie Ostrowski, lifelong Pittsburgh residents who have retinitis pigmentosa and were in attendance in Orlando, the opportunity that Costa’s organization has provided them has been invaluable. Before his diagnosis, Gottus played tennis often with his father in his youth.

“I gave up on sports for quite some time when my vision started to get worse,” he said. “But the second I put that racquet in my hand, the first time Dana bounced one of those balls to me, it all came back and I was like, ‘Wow, this is what I need,’ … to embrace my blindness, to embrace what's going on for me, to embrace my love for sports and competitive play. I needed that back in my life.

“I wish it wouldn't have taken me until my late 40s, early 50s, to finally connect with blind and visually-impaired people that I can share experiences with, understand what they're going through, and compare it to what I'm going through. It has helped tremendously.”

“It's just such an opportunity that I never would've had and I never thought that I wanted,” Ostrowski, who is classified as a B1 athlete, added. “But it's another physical athletic outlet for me, and I'm so grateful for Dana and her team and definitely grateful for the backing of the USTA.”

A two-day conference was held in conjunction with the tournament under the direction of Allen and expert panelists from the industry. In addition to more than a dozen players, participants hailed from as far away as Australia, England and Mexico—a diverse celebration for what was a “groundbreaking” moment for the USTA, Snead said.

“The fact that we're able to be a place for folks to be able to gather, to talk about this form of tennis, is incredible,” she continued. “Immediately, folks were saying, 'Hey, next year, can we X, Y, Z? Can we do add this? Can we add this?’ I think the biggest thing here is, yes, it's about the education, and it's about how can we grow the program, but also is how can we continue to provide moments where people can gather, have conversations and get to know each other?”

At the close of the event, one thing was made clear: While Costa has changed the game in this space, the work is just beginning for the USTA.

“Dana's a pioneer,” Allen said. “She’s doing something no one has done yet in this country, and not only is she doing it, but she's bringing it to fruition at the national level. She's the perfect model of taking a small idea and expounding it to a nationwide model, and for that, we're going to be forever grateful for what she's done.”

“From a diversity, equity, and inclusion perspective, I think this is true inclusion,” Snead added. “I think that as we talk about integrating wheelchair players with standing players, and playing together, how are we also doing that from a blind and visually impaired perspective? … How are we taking these players who may or may not be mainstream, and how are we integrating them into the mainstream? How are we letting them know that they can? Let’s just add a bounce, let’s just add a bell inside the ball, and let’s play together.”