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IN TOUCH – Tennis

TX:Ìý 11.07.2023Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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White

Good evening.Ìý

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Clip

Every forehand, every backhand, every young star, every rock star.

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Wimbledon 2023.

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White

It’s that time of year when the UK goes a bit sports daft with nothing bringing the nation to a standstill more than the Wimbledon fortnight, apart from the odd test match, of course.

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Well, all the Brits may already be out of the singles championships, after the first week, but it seems there’s never been a better time for visually impaired fans to follow their enthusiasm for the game – whether it’s watching it, helping to run it or playing themselves.Ìý Which is where we start this special on a sport which seems to be taking blind and partially sighted enthusiasts by storm.

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Now, you would have thought that tennis would be one of the hardest games to adapt for people with a vision problem because it’s so fast, a point I put to Amanda Green, who’s a trustee of Metro Blind Sport and has been instrumental in spreading the word about visually impaired tennis.

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Green

It was a challenge in the beginning.Ìý It was a case of could we really do this.Ìý The Japanese had already started.Ìý There’s a young man called Miyoshi Takei, he himself totally blind.Ìý And at school he got very, very frustrated because everyone else was playing ball games and sports and things and he found that he just couldn’t join in.Ìý So, if you can’t beat them, you join them – you invent your own rules, you find your own way round it.Ìý And so, the sound ball or the tennis was born back in the ‘90s, albeit over a smaller net and with a smaller racket and there was no blind tennis ball in those days so it had to be created and he created it, he did everything.

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White

And I gather they came over here and you were all a bit sceptical, isn’t that right?

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Green

We were, absolutely.Ìý The idea that blind people could hit a ball back with some force over the net, well were they just humouring us?Ìý But when we turned up for the demonstration back in 2007, we came away thinking – oh my word, this really is something that, you know, could grow.

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White

So, how much does the game, for people with some sight and the game, for people with none, how much do they differ?

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Green

So, for people with some sight, you are playing on a court which is three-quarters of the size of a regular tennis court.Ìý You are allowed two bounces or if your sight is a little bit better, you just have the one bounce.Ìý And you call – Ready? – Yes – and play, so that you know where your opponent is across the net.Ìý

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And for the totally blind, you play on a smaller court again, so it’s a junior court size.Ìý The net is lowered by just millimetres and particularly in tournaments the B1s will wear masks, eye masks, to give equality, rather than prevent cheating, I was going to say.

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White

Right, well, as we’ve said, adapting it for people with some sight is tricky enough, with no sight at all is a bit of a challenge.

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Monica Smith, you’re totally blind and you play that version of tennis, tell me about that and how you actually discovered that such a game existed.

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Smith

When I was growing up at school, I went to sighted school and I was always the last person to be chosen for any netball team or any relay races or anything like that because who wanted a blind person on their team.Ìý And when I was in my sort of forties, I decided to try out some of the sports that were available for blind and partially sighted people and I’d heard about this tennis.Ìý I joined a session and then when we got there, we were shown the ball and the racket and the first five shots that were sort of aimed at me, I hit two out of the five and I just – I was just hooked, I just thought – wow, this is amazing.Ìý And that was about five years ago and I absolutely love it.Ìý The ball’s got a bell in it.

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Actuality – ball being hit

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In the B1 game, you hit it on the third bounce, everything else is exactly the same – scoring is the same – and it very much relies on a lot of volunteers helping us around the court, helping to pick up balls.Ìý We have regional competitions happening – six a year.Ìý You have to play in one regional competition to play in the nationals and there’s a nationals’ competition every year.Ìý I won the nationals B1 lady category in 2019 and 2022 and I’ve been on the GB team for the last couple of years.Ìý And I’ve just received news that I’m going to be playing at the World Games in Birmingham this summer.

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White

Good for you.Ìý So, those are the IBSA games, yeah?

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Smith

That’s right, yes.

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White

I should explain, IBSA is International Blind Sports Association and In Touch is going to be there to cover it.

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Let me quickly go back to Amanda because we’ve heard Monica’s story, we haven’t really heard yours, I mean what’s your story in terms of wanting to play tennis and perhaps there originally not being a way you could do it?

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Green

I grew up with my brother and my mum playing tennis.Ìý My role there was to go and pick the balls up because I couldn’t join in.Ìý I also grew up watching Wimbledon every year, so I got to know the game, understand the game but, again, just couldn’t participate.Ìý So, it wasn’t until 2007 when the opportunity came for us to develop the sport, I suppose I had a big want to make it succeed.Ìý And then it was about finding players, finding people and introducing the whole world to tennis and just finding local people.Ìý It grew very, very quickly.

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White

Amanda Green, Monica Smith, thank you both very much.

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Whether you play or not there’s been what appears to be another very significant breakthrough for people with poor sight, who want to watch major tennis tournaments, such as Wimbledon.Ìý This fortnight has seen the trialling of a headset which enables visually impaired fans to watch games, streamed without any time delay, from any part of the stadium with adaptations that allow you to make the most of the sight you have left.

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In a moment, we’re going to be hearing from two people who’ve been trying it out at Wimbledon but first, the Chief Executive from the company GiveVision which has developed the equipment.

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Stan Karpenko, explain what these headsets do, in as non-techy way as you can, and how they do it.

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Karpenko

I think the easiest way for someone who has sight loss to understand what these are, I’d describe them as a wearable magnifier.

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White

I should explain, by the way, you’re at Wimbledon at the moment, so if we hear a few extraneous noises that’s why.Ìý How can it allow for so many different types of vision loss?Ìý I mean it’s often said that almost no one’s vision loss is the same, so I’m just wondering how it can adapt to that.

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Karpenko

Our system and other magnifiers they rely on bringing information into the peripheral vision so that the brain can, hopefully, make sense of it and deliver a visual information to the cortex.

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White

From your point of view, how have this week’s trials from Centre and Number One court gone and have they told you any new things about this equipment?

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Karpenko

Yes, you know, I think, the most amazing thing that came out of the trials for us as a company is a validation that we can rely on 5G connectivity and in this year, it was Vodafone that was helping us with this, to really connect the users to the broadcast feed, that they rely on to be able to follow the match.Ìý And, for me, this means that for any stadium it will require almost no infrastructure investment, they don’t need to drag any cables or do anything expensive to make this technology work.Ìý It’s a lot more affordable for venues to install systems like this and frankly, the question is – why aren’t they doing it sooner.

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White

Right, that’s interesting because what I wanted to ask you is what’s its potential for other sports and presumably, other events, as well, like music festivals for example, theatre, films maybe, I don’t know.

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Karpenko

Yeah, that is exactly right because if we look at prevalence of severe to medium sight loss, we’re looking at least two and a half, three percent of population in the UK, that means to pack Wembley for a concert or a premier league final with say out of 60,000 people we would be looking at least have a few thousand visually impaired.Ìý But when we speak to the premier league stadiums usually they have no more than 20 or 30 people at any given time and for me that signals that there’s a huge number of people who just don’t bother, why go to a football match if you cannot see anything.Ìý And the potential here is for us to open up the doors of live entertainment and you mentioned festivals, live sport events, for people who currently already live with visual impairments.Ìý And this year’s final at Wimbledon demonstrates that with 5G connectivity we can turn any venue, any stadium, in literally hours, into accessible for the visual impaired.

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White

Stan Karpenko, thank you very much indeed.

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Well, a few days ago, we talked to 17-year-old visually impaired player Ivan Rodriguez-Deb soon after he’d tried it out on the Centre Court.

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Rodriguez-Deb

I just can’t stress how incredible this revolutionary piece of technology is.

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White

I mean have you ever – I don’t know if you’ve been…. Oh we’re getting some applause in the background so we can tell you’re really there.Ìý Have you actually tried to watch Wimbledon before, have you had the chance to watch it at all before live at the court?

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Rodriguez-Deb

Well, I haven’t actually, I have contemplated for several years going to Wimbledon but, of course, I’ve realised that it’s not actually worth going because I wouldn’t be able to experience the match just as any other sighted fan would, so I decided not to go in previous years.Ìý But with this headset it’s now incredible and I’m absolutely ecstatic that I’m able to see the expression on the players’ faces after every point, being able to see the detail of the spin that’s on the ball, how close the ball has landed to the line, being able to see the reaction of the fans.Ìý Even if you’re far away from the action, you can zoom in with the headset to be able to get that much detail into watching the match, it really is an incredible experience to be able to do that for the first time.

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White

Ivan Rodriguez-Deb there.

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Now, Rosie Pybus also plays VI tennis and she’ll soon be playing a match on Wimbledon’s famous courts herself.Ìý We’ll hear more about that in a moment but first, Rosie, you also tried out the 5G headset, what did you make of it?

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Pybus

I can’t describe how incredible it was to finally be able to piece together the iconic atmosphere of Wimbledon, well I won’t say the sunshine because we did have a little bit of rain but, you know, all of the loveliness of being at Wimbledon, being at the tennis, whilst actually being able to see the action in front of me and really be able to engage in what was going on, on court, it was just incredible.

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White

Have you been actually trying to go in the past as your sight’s deteriorated?

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Pybus

Yes, I’ve been to Wimbledon a number of times but I’ve never been able to access it the same way as the plus one, my friend, whoever I’ve been with on the day, who can help point things out to me or describe shots to me or I’ve also got the option of the radio.Ìý It’s just so empowering to be able to choose which end of the court I want to look at, do I want to sit and count the holes in a tennis net or do I want to people watch, you know, these incredible things that I’ve never even dreamed of being able to do before and it was, yeah, it was just such a great experience.

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White

Now we’ve been talking about the playing on this programme, as well, tell us a bit more about your tennis and how you got involved with VI tennis.

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Pybus

So, I first picked up a racket in about 2012, prior to that I’d never been a sporty person, so I hadn’t found my niche, if you will.Ìý I used to attend a club called Actionnaires which was a multi sports club for blind and partially sighted children.Ìý Through that I kind of became a volunteer and then a member of staff and it was speaking with a colleague, who herself had a vision impairment, a lady who’s notoriously infamous in the North East for being the crazy tennis lady and that’s Wendy Glasper.Ìý It was honestly easier to say – right, I’ll come and have a go – than to say – please delete my number and stop contacting me, I don’t know who you are.Ìý She was very adamant that I should come and give tennis a go.Ìý And it wasn’t until about two or three weeks afterwards, when I was stood in a sports shop in a queue kind of buying a tennis racket, and it suddenly dawned on me – oh, maybe I do like this tennis malarky, maybe this is my sport, maybe I can be healthier and more active.Ìý And honestly, I’ve never looked back since.

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White

And in fact, to the extent that you’ll be playing in the finals of another scheme that Vodafone are a part of called Play Your Way to Wimbledon.Ìý So, tell us about that, you’re going to be playing there soon.

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Pybus

Its not even a pipe dream that I’ve ever imagined.Ìý So, Vodafone have partnered with Wimbledon to get this mass participation tournament which is great and really supports the juniors to come on.Ìý But this year there’s a new more inclusive element where they’re including blind and VI tennis.Ìý To finally be getting the recognition that it’s just tennis because, in reality, it is, it’s just tennis but also, how incredible that visually impaired tennis exists and it’s an option and there’s pathways and there’s progression.

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White

So, this happens in August, yeah?

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Pybus

Yeah, so this all starts in August and I feel like it’s one of those where by the time I blink I’ll have missed it and it’s just going to be an amazing experience to be playing on the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

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White

Make sure you enjoy yourself.Ìý Rosie Pybus, thanks for coming on.

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There’s been another development over this Wimbledon fortnight which could have wider implications than just enjoyment of the game.Ìý The Wimbledon Foundation – that’s the charitable arm of the championships – has a close relationship with Merton Vision – they’re the local society for blind people.Ìý For the first time, the Wimbledon Foundation have offered the opportunity to local visually impaired people to work at Wimbledon over the fortnight.Ìý Eight people went for interviews and all were offered a variety of roles, including Nathan Maraj and Alan Farrell.Ìý I’m going to go to Alan first.

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What have you been doing at the championships?

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Farrell

I’m working for Guest Services.Ìý Initially, I started off with helping with ticket scanning and then I moved on to work in the information booth and basically, helping people get to different locations within Centre Court.

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White

Presumably that means knowing the geography of the courts and the gangways quite well because it’s quite a big site, isn’t it?

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Farrell

So, you don’t need to know it really well.Ìý Obviously, if you’re sighted it does help because you can probably give more description.Ìý But you’re given a plan and the plan of Centre Court is quite small, so in my case the plan was blown up to A3 size.Ìý And then, because of my dyslexia, as well as my visual impairment, my support worker was very helpful in coming up with the idea of adding in some colour coding so, it would make it easier for me to direct people.

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White

So, they’ve been very flexible really in making it a job you can do?

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Farrell

Yes, absolutely.Ìý I thought, you know, it would be nice to have a total change of job and it’s made a real difference and I feel really happy that I’ve got out of my comfort zone a little bit and done something completely different.

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White

Fantastic.Ìý Let me move to Nathan, Nathan Maraj, what about you, what have you been doing?

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Maraj

I’ve been on the Foundation kiosk.Ìý I have been giving directions, just like Alan as well, and taking pictures of the public with our trophies and giving out badges and information about the Foundation.

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White

Did you expect to find yourself with a role at the prestigious Wimbledon championships?

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Maraj

Absolutely not.Ìý I didn’t think it would be possible or people would even consider me to work or interact with the public and I’d be overlooked and people would think – well, he’s got a white stick, what’s he going to be able to tell me – and people would be afraid of asking me or interacting but everyone’s been really brilliant and they’ve just come up to me as how I used to be when I was sighted.Ìý I feel like I’m being seen by the public as a person, not just a white stick.

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White

I mean do you think this might change your attitude about the chances of future work?

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Maraj

Yeah, absolutely.Ìý Over the last 10 years I slowly lost sight and it seemed like wherever I went I felt like work was what I can’t do but through the support and actual belief of being part of something so big, it’s given me the lift that maybe I can actually do stuff and actually be trusted to actually work and actually pull off a role.

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White

Nathan Maraj, Alan Farrell, thank you both very much for joining us.

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And that’s it for today.Ìý Let’s hear any comments you have.Ìý We’d particularly like to hear from relatively newly blind people experiencing long waits for crucial help, such as the certificate of visual impairment which gives access to benefits or perhaps training with daily living skills.Ìý You can email intouch@bbc.co.uk, leave voice messages on 0161 8361338 or go to our website, if you’re able, that’s bbc.co.uk/intouch.

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From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio manager Amy Brennan, goodbye.

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