Youth Tennis: Sullivan Makes Switch To Left-Handed Player

 STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Bessie Sullivan, 14, of Bella Vista pauses betwen points during her match on Saturday in the Mattel Summer Junior Tennis State Championship at Memorial Park in Bentonville.
STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Bessie Sullivan, 14, of Bella Vista pauses betwen points during her match on Saturday in the Mattel Summer Junior Tennis State Championship at Memorial Park in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE -- When Bessie Sullivan started learning how to play tennis, she simply tried to do things the same way everybody else in her recreational class did.

There was just one problem. Everybody else was right-handed, and she wasn't.

So the Bella Vista teenager has spent the past two years in a transitional mode as she learned how to play the sport all over again -- this time as a left-hander.

"It's really hard sometimes because all these other kids you play have been playing with one hand since they were little," Sullivan said before Saturday morning's match at the Mattel Summer Junior Open State Championships. "You look at other players like, 'They're getting better than me, and I'm still working on my forehand every day.'

"It's still a struggle. But you have to realize that, considering the circumstances I've been through, I'm actually progressing pretty well. I would never go back to right-handed. Being a lefty is a really big advantage, and I'm glad it happened."

Sullivan continued to play right-handed when she began more competitive tennis lessons at the Walton Fitness Center as a 10-year-old. She had already reached the "advanced class" by the time she turned 12, but everything began to change during one of those lessons as she was helping everybody else pick up balls.

She had her racket in her left hand and used her left foot to pick up the balls, and her coach noticed it.

"I couldn't do it with my right hand, so I was doing it with my left hand," Sullivan said. "He asked why I was doing it with my left hand, and I told him that I was actually left-handed.

"It kind of unfolded from there. I couldn't serve right-handed, so it made more sense. The coach then said 'you're going to be left-handed' because I wasn't that far along with my tennis playing. He said I could start from the ground level playing left-handed."

Sullivan, who will join Bentonville's girls tennis team as a freshman next month, said the hardest part of the transition has been the development of her forehand shot. When she first made the switch, she said she actually played with two backhands because her left wrist wasn't strong enough to deliver a good forehand.

It wasn't until March 2013 when she put a one-handed forehand. It still remains a work in progress, but the work she has put into it hasn't gone unnoticed by Andrew Todd, who serves as the junior director of the Bella Vista Tennis Association and has helped her through the transition.

"It was something I found out about a month ago," said Todd, who became Sullivan's coach last fall. "I was very shocked when I found out Bessie was making this transition to being a left-handed player, and she's made a lot of improvement.

"It's hard to learn things over when you have been taught to do things a certain way, but it has worked out very well for her. She's clearly worked hard at it because she's dedicated to the sport and wants to be on top. I give all the credit to her work ethic. I can't imagine trying to learn how to play tennis left-handed."

Sports on 07/20/2014

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