Morris Cohen Glen & Co Sponsors Australia Champion
Zvi Schweitzer started playing tennis as a 7 year old. He soon progressed to playing competition, firstly juniors, then seniors for Murrumbeena and Maccabi Tennis Club.
As a young person with an intellectual disability (ID), Zvi started playing in tennis ID events at the age of 15. He was spotted by Pete Smith (Lleyton Hewitt’s first coach) and invited to join the Australian ID tennis team, travelling to Poland in 2005 to represent Australia in the World Tennis Championships for players with an ID. He has won the Australian, Victorian and South Australian Tennis Championships for players with an ID in both singles and doubles and been ranked no. 1 in Australia in tennis for players with an ID.
He has now represented Australia overseas on three occasions (also in 2009 and 2011 in the “Global Games”, the equivalent to the Olympics for athletes with an ID) winning one gold medal and 4 silver medals.
In June 2012 Zvi won Tennis Victoria’s “Most Outstanding Athlete with a disability” award, and in December 2012 he was a finalist for Tennis Australia’s “Most Outstanding Athlete with a disability award”.
Zvi is also interested in coaching and has done a tennis coaching course. He is an assistant tennis coach at Murrumbeena and Maccabi tennis clubs. Since 2008, he has been running tennis coaching classes at schools for children with an ID.
Zvi Schweitzer has again won the Victorian Tennis Championships for players with an Intellectual Disability held over the weekend of 12 and 13 October 2013. Zvi had previously won the championships in 2009 and 2010 and in 2012 was runner up to Mitchell James who he had to beat this time to win back the title.
STOP PRESS!
Zvi was selected and travelled to represent Australia in the 2013 World Tennis Championships for players with an ID held in June 2013 in the Czech republic. He went on to win a silver and a bronze medal for his efforts.
The 2015 World Championships were held in Ecuador and again Zvi successfully represented Australia.
