Frans Otten Stadium in Amsterdam
has hosted many squash events, including the European Team
Championships, the Women's World Team Championships, as well as
major events in many other sports..
It recently hosted the NEC Wheelchair Masters, during which
Marc Veldkamp organised a tryout wheelchair squash match
between Robin Ammerlaan, world wheelchair champion
tennis, and Maikel Scheffers, the current world number 8 in
that event.
Veldkamp, a former national team player in squash, is also the
promoter of the
Dutch Open
Racketlon this coming December (www.racket4s.com)
in Rotterdam. He found out that there are absolutely no rules to be
found about wheelchair squash. In fact, despite an intense search on
the web he found nothing on the subject of wheelchair squash apart
from two pictures of people just hitting a squash ball in a
wheelchair. Nothing else.
So, because Veldkamp wants to add wheelchair Racketlon to his event
he contacted Robin Ammerlaan.
Ammerlaan, together with his compatriot Maikel Scheffers, was
immediately interested in helping out. After a brief instruction
about the rules and tactics of squash they sent Veldkamp off the court
and they played probably the first wheelchair squash match in
history.
Because of their own high standard in tennis it was almost
unbelievably good squash. Soon the gallery was filled with
interested people to watch the unusual match. And they enjoyed
it as much as the players. It was amazing to see how fast both
players were in manoeuvring their chairs. From T to backcourt and
back to the T as if they had played squash all their lives. And
neither ad ever held a squash racket before!
"You need to
stay as close as possible to the basics of this game or these guys
will lose interest. Their challenge is to play squash like a normal,
able-bodied, player would.
"They are playing with a blue Dunlop ball but I am sure that they
could play at the same standard with a red or maybe even with a
single dot yellow ball."
National Wheelchair Tennis Coach
Oh, and for the records Ammerlaan
beat Scheffers 3/1. And only four let situations in those four
games.
Both players will enter the Dutch Open Racketlon in December and
they also agreed to play an exhibition wheelchair squash match
between the ladies and men's finals at the national championships in
February. On the same centre court, so definitely something to look
forward for!
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