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Countdown to Athens: Jayant Mistry

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Matt Horler 16 March 2004

The minds of most Paralympic sportsmen and women are focused solely on the 2004 Games in September, now exactly six months away.

But for Britain's No.1 wheelchair tennis player Jayant Mistry, the Paralympics is just one of many tournaments he will compete in this year and Athens is still a distant event on the horizon.

Indeed, the wheelchair tennis circuit's exhausting international calendar took its toll on Mistry towards the end of 2003 when, after playing six tournaments in seven weeks, he picked up tennis elbow.

After working with his regular physio and investing many hours of training over the Christmas period to recover from the setback, injury struck again at February's Australian Open - the first event of the 2004 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour to have Super Series status, the equivalent of Grand Slam.

"It was on the morning of the competition and I managed to break my finger in a freak accident," Mistry recalls. "I was playing a shot and pulled my hand back to hit the ball and got my finger stuck between the racquet and the hand rim of my wheel."

After initially thinking it was merely badly bruised, the finger soon became swollen and an x-ray the following day revealed a broken bone.

"I tried to play on anyway in Melbourne but was advised it would need seven to ten days to heal. I went on the make the last 16 of the Australian Open but frustratingly I lost in three sets to a guy I could have beaten."

The wheelchair tennis world rankings system is run on a rolling 52-week basis with results from last year's events still contributing points.

Currently ranked ninth in the world in singles and sixth in the doubles, Mistry remains on course for selection by the British Paralympic Association in April when the four highest-placed British players in the world's top 32 will join the team.

"It is a long season and we are now aiming to peak for Athens," Mistry adds. "Other players will also be upping their training programmes but I love playing the game and it remains a great feeling to hit the ball where you want it go."

And has Mistry allowed himself a moment's thought as to his chances at the Paralympics?

"Any one of 12 players can do it and with all the top eight in the rankings coming from a different country it is truly a global sport so there will be a good mix of players in Athens. In the last year or so I went close with the person who won gold in Sydney and have beaten the silver and bronze medallists, so I know I'm right up there."

After a career which has included over 60 international career titles to date, Mistry will be aiming to add Paralympic gold to his collection in September.

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