Nick Taylor Moves On

Taylor Moves On

By: Mark Collins

Wheelchair tennis legend Nick Taylor announced his retirement from tennis at the UNIQLO Wheelchair Masters Doubles event in Orlando, Fla. at the USTA National Campus in early November.

Taylor is a former world No. 1 in both quad singles and doubles and won four Paralympic medals over his career. However, his athletic career is far from over. He will maintain his role as the Director of Operations for Wichita State Men’s Tennis.

He will also still be involved in the game of tennis as the tournament director at the $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event held in Wichita, and will next put his competitive drive to use in a different sport: he hopes to head to the Paralympic Games in 2024 in the sport of boccia.

He recently got started on that quest when he participated at the 2021 World Boccia Americas Regional Championships in São Paulo, Brazil in early December. He took second place in his group to advance into the knockout stage before falling in the first knockout round.

While the jump from tennis to boccia may seem strange to some, Taylor says it was an easy next step for him. He’s been in contact with boccia officials in the past. The timeline just might differ based on who you ask.

“If you ask them, they’ve been recruiting me since I was a kid,” Taylor said. “They always kind of had their eyes on me, but they knew they weren’t really going to get me to do it when I was also playing tennis.” These conversations helped plant the seed for Taylor’s life after tennis. Like any professional athlete, he knew his time in tennis had to start winding down eventually so he started entertaining the idea of boccia. While the transition may seem sudden to those on the outside, it’s been in the works for a few years.

“I actually started playing a couple of years ago, when I didn’t need to be at a tennis tournament I was going to some boccia tournaments and stuff like that,” Taylor said. “I was actually able to move into that full-time pretty much immediately.”

After taking his first step toward qualifying for the 2024 Paralympics, Taylor will continue to dive further into boccia full-time. One thing is for sure, though: if he is half as talented a boccia player as he is a tennis player, we haven’t seen the last of Nick Taylor competing on a national level.

D AR WA KER R

Nick Taylor Wins Brad Parks Award

NICKTAYLORWINSBRADPANick Taylor adds to his many accolades by receiving the USTA’s highest honor for wheelchair contributions - the Brad Parks Award. Nick will be presented with the award at the Awards Luncheon during the USTA Annual Meeting in Orlando in March. The Brad Parks Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the game of wheelchair tennis and was named after Brad Parks, a pioneer of wheelchair tennis and the first wheelchair tournament champion, who has been instrumental in the development of wheelchair tennis around the world.

Taylor competed at BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Sardinia, Italy from September 27October 3, 2021.