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By: Tony Callaio
 Wednesday provided a great day of tennis at the Family Circle Cup, a Premier Level - Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event at Charleston. Tennis greats like Wozniaki, Petrova, Hantuchova, Ciantoni, and Casteel were all in action throughout the day.
Ciantoni and Casteel? If you don’t recognize either of those tennis names, you might be surprised to know that one was a two-time Italian Cup National champion, and one a former intercollegiate national champion… both achieving such feats in a wheelchair.
Alessandro Cianfoni, a native of Rome, Italy, is a former International Wheelchair Tennis Federation (IWTF) professional. Sarah Casteel is a former World Top 25 player on the IWTF. Together, they joined Murphy Jensen, TV personality and former World No.17 doubles player, and Diane Fishburne, current World No.1 in women’s 45’s, for a Run/Roll exhibition match on the hard courts at the Family Circle Tennis Center.
Roy Barth, one of the American Tennis Professionals (ATP) founding members and a former Tour player was on-hand for the exhibition. Barth has been the Director of Tennis for over 25-years at Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
Fishburne has served on seven USTA Cup Teams for International play and captained the 2004’s Margaret Court Cup Championship Team.
Cianfoni, Fishburne, and Barth reside in Charleston, while Casteel lives in Greenfield, SC.
Jensen and Casteel were teamed against Cianfoni and Fishburne for the one-hour Run/Roll exhibition hosted by Julie Jilly of the USPTR. Murphy, ever the court jester, entertained the foursome with a mixture of frivolity and serious tennis. Unfortunately for Murphy, the team of Cianfoni/Fishburne took the set 6-2.
Interested spectators not only had a chance to see world-class athletes play tennis, but also had a chance to experience what it is like to play tennis in a wheelchair. Roy Barth fed balls to players as they attempted to hit ground strokes, volleys and lobs.
Alessandro Cianfoni was felled by a skiing accident paralyzing him at the age of 15 and by the time he was 18-years old he started playing wheelchair basketball with some of the top teams in Italy, France and the USA from 1993-2001.
In 2000, Alessandro turned his attention to wheelchair tennis in San Diego where later that year, won the “B” Class at the US Open. Currently practicing neuroradiology, Cianfoni reached a career high of No.140 in singles and No.120 in doubles. In 2006 and 2007, he won the Italian Cup National singles championships. He currently works as an assistant professor at MUSC in the neurointervention radiology (NIR) department - minimally invasive spine interventions.
Casteel, a native of Texas, is a former Top 25 player on the IWTF. She won a national championship two years in a row, in 2004 and 2005 on the collegiate level. In 2005, she was also a member of the World Cup team competition held in the Netherlands. Sarah received her undergraduate degree in Inter-disciplinary Studies as well as a degree in Occupational Therapy at MUSC.
Roy Barth was ranked as high as No.8 in men's singles in college, and reached the Top 50 in the world on men's Pro Tour.
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