As many of you may have already noticed, the Tenerife Open is not on this year’s calendar of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour. We from Club IODA Tenerife would like to explain why we decided not to host the tournament again this year.
Despite a few initial challenges, the Tenerife Open was a wonderful gift to us in last years. It allowed us to meet outstanding athletes from around the world, brought unprecedented visibility to wheelchair tennis in Tenerife and enabled us to fulfil the dream of establishing our own wheelchair tennis school. In short, we owe a great deal to the Tenerife Open, to its participants, volunteers, supporters as well as sponsors.
Nevertheless, there will be no international tournament in Tenerife this year. Instead, we are excited to announce that, together with the Canarian Tennis Federation, we will be hosting the Canarian Wheelchair Tennis Championships. With support from the Fundación DISA, the wheelchair tennis community of the Canary Islands will gather in Adeje from November 21 to 24 to crown the regional champions and strengthen the bonds of friendship among athletes.
Another reason against hosting an ITF tournament is the evolution of wheelchair tennis at the international level. While it is encouraging to see wheelchair tennis gaining greater recognition and professionalism worldwide, the ITF is increasingly moving away from a key segment of its target audience. Particularly in recent years, wheelchair tennis seems to be heading in a direction that leaves less and less room for athletes who depend on a wheelchair in their daily lives.
We do not wish to deny anyone the right to compete in wheelchair tennis or pursue the dream of participating in the Paralympics. However, under the current structure of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, this dream is increasingly out of reach for many athletes with a higher degree of disability. For example, athletes with complete paraplegia are at a distinct disadvantage compared to their less-impaired comrades. Rather than promoting fairness, the classification system introduced by the ITF is marked by bureaucracy and
inefficacy, likely contributing to declining participation in tournaments.
Under current conditions, it makes more sense for us to focus our energy on smaller, regional tournaments, giving local athletes the chance to gradually grow into competitive sports.
What are your thoughts on the classification issue? Does the ITF succeed in providing fair competition conditions?
And is a fair, comprehensible classification system, that doesn’t disadvantage any of its athletes, even possible without creating complexity and a multitude of categories that dilute the sport?
We would love to hear your opinion!
