Thirteen-year-old Dylan Levine, a member of United Spinal Association since 2005, has been chosen to compete in the 2006 Invacare Wheelchair Tennis World Team Cup, May 1st through May 7th at the Academy of Tennis Resort in Brazil.

Levine began playing wheelchair tennis in 2002 with United Spinal through a weekly program offering professional coaches from the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

“This is so great, I never thought I would be able to [participate in such a high level competition] like this at such a young age,” said Levine, who is also captain of the United Spinal Jr. Nets Wheelchair Basketball team. “I had it in my mind as a goal I would like to achieve, but after being invited to a junior camp in Texas my opportunity to compete with high performance players came a lot sooner than I expected. I am so excited to get to Brazil and represent the United States and the United Spinal Association.”

The 2006 Wheelchair Tennis World Team Cup, the single largest wheelchair tennis event in the world, has become one of the most popular stops on the tour for athletes from around the world. Between 150 and 240 wheelchair tennis players from 32 countries are expected for the Brazil tournament.

“I am very proud and happy for Dylan to have a chance to experience overseas competition,” said Patrick Donaghey, United Spinal’s Program Manager for Sports and Recreation and a member of the USTA. “It’s a tough competition but a great experience. There is nothing like the feeling of competing with such competitive athletes. Dylan has already achieved a great deal by being able to participate in such an event.”

The Association, in conjunction with the USTA, will be sponsoring the 6th Annual Jana Hunsaker Memorial Wheelchair Tennis Tournament at the USTA National Tennis Center in Queens, New York from June 8th through the 11th.

Membership in the United Spinal Association is free and open to all individuals who have a spinal cord injury or disorder.

Media Contact: Jennifer M. Rodriguez, (718) 803-3782, ext. 282 / (917) 734-6032 / jrodriguez@unitedspinal.org

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 8:57 am and is filed under Kids Events, Sports, United Spinal News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.