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Sports

Atlanta Open Championships a Key Draw

World-ranked players highlight wheelchair tennis event at Dunwoody Country Club

Scott Dockter knows good tennis and was treated to it again last weekend.

As chairman of the Atlanta Open Tennis Championships at Dunwoody Country Club, he witnessed the same high level of wheelchair competition he has the last five years there.

"Wheelchair tennis is such a unique sport," he said. "It's been a real joy to be involved."

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Dockter, a former college player and ALTA board member who's been tournament chairman for 10 years, has seen the tournament grow in prominence through various locations, including Blackburn Park near Marist School.

"The number of players who've been here double-digit years and keep coming back shows how high this tournament ranks," he said. "It's quite inspiring."

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Competition comprised Open and A-, B- and C-level singles and doubles divisions. Quadriplegics who have limited use of their upper bodies have their own division, while paraplegics and those with upper-body mobility have another.

Playing in both manual and motorized wheelchairs, some of last weekend's competitors had no use of their legs, while others no legs at all. Players with limited use of their hands had racquets fixed to them. Conventional rules are modified in wheelchair play to allow the ball to bounce twice.

Dockter has watched the Dunwoody event become increasingly more competitive, and a bigger fan draw with corporate sponsorship from the likes of UPS, Aflac and AT&T. Community involvement, he said, has been key to the tournament's success.

"Dunwoody is a big part of this," he said. "The community has been very involved."

Among the most highly awaited matches in this year's five-day tournament was Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands' 6-1, 6-1 victory over Kaitlyn Verfuerth of Tucson, Ariz., in the women's open division. It was Walraven's second consecutive Atlanta Open title and first over Verfuerth, who won in 2006 and 2008.

Walraven won $3,000 of the 25th-annual tournament's $30,000 total purse, and Verfuerth pocketed a little less than $1,000. The two also teamed to win doubles against Kentucky's Emmy Kaiser and MacKenzie Soldan, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

A former No. 1-ranked American player and top-10 international player, Verfuerth, 25, drew comparisons between five years in Dunwoody's event and her two Paralympics in 2004 and 2008.

"Even though this is a pretty high category tournament, it has a casual feel, too," Verfuerth said. "It's professional, but in a nice and friendly way.

"A lot of players like to come here because it's run very professionally, but has a casual feel, too. I look forward to coming here every year. The Dunwoody Country Club is a great venue."

In another key final, David Wagner of Oregon beat Nick Taylor of Kansas 6-1, 6-1 for his fifth consecutive men's quad championship. Taylor, who competes in a motorized chair, uses a shortened racquet looped to his hand and kicks the ball up to serve.

In other prominent finals, Alpharetta's David Williams beat California's Keith Concar, 7-6, 6-3 in men's A singles. Williams also reached the A doubles final with Locust Grove's Harlon Matthews, but lost to Concar and Wagner, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

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