Nick Taylor is a US Open champion, World Team Cup champion, and gold medalist. He also has the sweetest serve of anyone on the wheelchair tennis tour.
Taylor, who is one of the few players that uses a powered wheelchair, kicks the ball with his foot to deliver his powerful serve. This method has turned more than a few heads throughout his career.
This method came about, not as a way to differentiate himself from his competitors, but out of necessity. He started playing at 14 with the desire to make his high school’s tennis team. He would hit tennis balls against his grandmother’s garage to practice. Family members would toss the ball to him, but he knew that in order to be competitive, he would need hours of practice.
“I was obviously not going to find any family member, no matter how much they loved me to stand there, and throw a ball to me for four or five hours. So I had to find a way to pick it up myself,” he said in an interview at the US Open.
He used a combination of hacky-sack and soccer skills to put the ball on top of his foot and then kick it to himself. ”At that point in time, I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to serve. I wasn’t even thinking about a serve. I was thinking about how I am going to get the ball off the ground and get it back up in the air so I can hit it again.”
Figuring out how to hit the ball proved only half the battle for Taylor. Controlling his chair, which many wheelchair players agree is the most challenging aspect of the game, proved another obstacle. The manual chairs are much easier to control, as they weigh only 12 pounds and can turn on a dime.
Taylor’s chair is powered, allowing him to move slightly quicker, but as he puts it, “I am driving a 300 pound semi-truck.” His turning radius is much larger, making playing side line to side much more difficult. He often goes backward to keep up, something the manual chairs cannot do.
His chair may limit him, but he continues to find the positive in the situation. “No matter how severely disabled my opponent is, or is not, everybody is less disabled than I am. As a result, I have to try and outthink people.”
When he is not serving up winners at Grand Slams, Taylor helps coach the men’s able-bodied tennis team at Wichita State, as well as motivational speaking. He likes to remind those who are going through a hardship to have determination. “You can’t be afraid to fail, because you are going to fail in the beginning. If I can go from hitting a ball 5 feet, to hitting a forehand 70MPH, you can do whatever you want.”
It has taken Taylor many years, but he has become one of the top American wheelchair tennis players in the world, claiming gold medal in the Paralympic Games in 2004 in Sydney and 2008 in Beijing. He and his doubles partner David Wagner defended their US Open title on Saturday.
He has certainly accomplished a lot on the tennis court, but he would love to see Novak Djokovic, who is a master of impressions, imitate him. “My guess is he could do it.” The crowds would surely like to see that.
Follow Kristen on Twitter @Call2thebullpen
