• Shingo Kunieda JPN, half of the surprise U.S. Open winning doubles team, won this years $7,500 Peace Cup in his home country of Japan, winning 6-1, 6-4 over the Korean player Ha-Gel-Lee.


• Matthew Faucher GBR won the prestigious $1,500 Esporta Cardiff after being down in the 1st set 2-6, winning 6-4, 6-4 over his countryman Kevin Plowan.


• Frederic Cattaneo FR won the $3,000 Tournoi de Montfermeil over his countrymen Francois Morille 6-4, 6-3. I don't know why No.1. player FR MJ isn't there whiping butt, but after 5 years of competing finally paying off, he deserves a break.

Did you know that Michael Jeremiasz is the No. 1 Men's Wheelchair Tennis player in the world? In both singles and doubles? That's so cool. He is a great tennis player and I look forward to photographing him again. I am having alot of fun with Rollingpix, and learning these HTML codes and style-sheets has given me a completely different view of the internet and how it works. Rollingpix is a idea that came to me in early 2005.

I went to a tennis tournament on my birthday in 2004, I was 6 years into my Spinal Cord Injury at that time, and totally absent from things having to do with people in chairs. I saw these really fit men and women in chairs playing tennis, and no people in chairs photographing them. The idea for a person in a chair photographing wheelchair athletics seemed like a great way for me to get involved in the scene. From April 2004 to March 2005 I crawled search engines to find the right camera technology and how best to take pictures from my chair.

I found the tech with Canon Cameras and Manfrotto Tripods and the result is Rollingpix. Thanks to the 20,000 people that have come to my site in the past month, even though the No.1 is Maria Sharapova's cute butt.

As of yesterday Oct. 17th. Michael Jeremiasz became the No 1 men's wheelchair tennis player, both singles and doubles in the world! Previously holding the French National Championship, "2001,2002," this is the 24 year old's first time at number one. He has only been playing WCT for 5 years. In that short time he has won 19 pro tournaments and placed 2nd in countless others. Good Luck Michael, now and in the future. I took this picture at the NASDAQ 100 Open on March 31st. 2005. Credit me if you use it please.

Rollingpix

That spiffy banner up there was made by Nick @ Pendulum Graphics in Tampa, Florida. If your curious about how to do it, here's the technique. (1.) "How to change my header in Blogger?

Get yourself an image at least 800px (x) 100 px. Host that image somewhere. Copy the html code for the hosted picture. Open your Blogger template and scroll down until you see the bit of code that says "start header"and"/end header"

. Under "start header" and above "/end header"is where you are working. Delete the code in that area except "div id header" and copy/paste the hosted picture there. Bam!

As the trailer to this docu-film asks, "What is a chair?"

"Champions on Wheels tells the story of five extraordinary young people who suddenly find themselves in wheelchairs. It is an unblinkingly honest, upbeat portrayal of courage, determination, perseverance, faith, belief in self, powerful athleticism, zest for life, and a great desire to be seen as a normal person. Wheelchair tennis players have recaptured their lives and are living them to their utmost. There is life after disability.

Champions on Wheels is aimed at two audiences: those who are recently injured and need to see what a full life they can still lead and those who are presently ambulatory. Watching these world class athletes overcome obstacles and insist on being independent compels us to admire their athletic prowess, dedication, zest for life and see them for what they are: real people who merely get around differently."

Buy this video folks. I had the opportunity and pleasure of apeaking with Grace Shafir who put this project together. I called her this morning about using content from her site here on Rollingpix. I really hope to have continuing contact with her. She has alot of great ideas about where to take the "entertainment factor" of wheelchair athletics in the future. You can view the trailer online, or go directly to their page here.

Rollingpix
Pictures, Links and Content used with permission of Grace Shafir

This young woman (24) is amazing, as of this last tournament she has won 155 consecutive matches. WHOA. This is longest streak in Women's wheelchair tennis. Her winning streak goes all the way back to 2003! Winning 155 matches in a row eclipses both the #'s 1 and 2 in "able-bodied" women's tennis.

• Martina Navratilova won 74 in '84

• Steffi Graf won 66 in '89-'90.

Einstein proved that "all things are relative," yep. She is "relatively" the best womans tennis player in history in that respect.
She is also quite beautiful.

"Update"

She won her 5th US Open Championship on Oct. 9th.

Sorry that I am just now posting about this prestigious Major tournament. Blame the ITF for not having the drawsheets available. Anyways here are the results..

• Michael Jeremiasz def. Satoshi Saida - 7/5, 6/3. That's my favorite tennis player
• Mens Doubles - Kuneida/Saida def. Jeremiasz/Hall - 4/6, 6/1, 6/1. I would have loved to see that match!
• Esther Vergeer def. Jiskie Griffioen - 6/2, 6/2.

I am glad that the tournament went well. Esther Vergeer is definitely the most dominant female athlete in wheelchair tennis history, hands down.

I will be posting less frequently over the next few days. Rollingpix is starting to consume the majority of my time and I need to find a good way or ways of making it profitable. My photography has been completely on hold for too long. I have ideas for other blogs too, I just don't have enough time.... Til then.

Rollingpix

This years $50,000 2005 Wheelchair Tennis Masters Tournament in Atlanta is in it's third round today. (1.) David Hall and (2.) Michael Jeremiasz are cruising through, Mr. Hall's first opponent retired at 5 - 0 in the first set. In the second round he won 6 - 0, 6 - 1. Mr. Jeremiasz went through to today winning 6 - 0, 6 - 1 in the first and 6 - 1, 7 - 5.

David Hall and Michael Jeremiasz continue their dominance of the number 1 and 2 spots in the world rankings. Mr. Hall won in sets on Sun. Oct. 2. Winning 6 - 2, 7 - 5. He leads in their head to head matches this year 4 - 3.