Tennis is considered the world’s healthiest sport, and something good happened on the tennis courts in Coppell.
Players competed in the 45th Texas Open Wheelchair Championships earlier this month. The Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club (DWTC) hosted the event at the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center in Coppell. The championship tournament was started in 1981 and is the oldest, continuously held tournament in the history of wheelchair tennis.
The U.S. Tennis Association backs the Dallas club and recently awarded it a $3,500 grant to help further the program. The USTA distributed $100,000 in grants to 56 wheelchair tennis programs nationwide.
“They’ve been stalwarts in the wheelchair tennis world for so many years. Dallas has been an incredible city for wheelchair tennis for the better part of three or four decades,” said Jason Harnett, the director of wheelchair tennis at Florida-based USTA.
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Wheelchair Tennis was founded in 1976 when Brad Parks first hit a tennis ball from a wheelchair and realized the potential of this new sport. Wheelchair tennis became a full medal sport at the Paralympics in 1992. Since 2007, wheelchair tennis has been played at all four Grand Slams.
“Paralympic sport is so compelling. The back stories of the athletes and how they got there, and then of course, just the athleticism and the professionalism are at the top level,” Harnett said. “And I’ve worked both sides of the fence, professional, able-bodied, and Paralympic, and to me the Paralympic side is more compelling and in some ways, because of again, the adversity to get to where they’re at is, is remarkable,” Harnett said.
The mayor of Coppell presented DWTC club president Charles (Carlos) Turic with a proclamation declaring May as National Tennis Month. The city councils in Keller and Midlothian passed proclamations as well.
The DWTC has partnerships with the City of Coppell (Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center) and SMU Tennis (Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex), where we host our weekly tennis clinics. The Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club can be contacted at 972-317-7972 or DWTCPresident@aol.com.
The USTA says: • Tennis participation in the U.S. has surged to a new high of 25.7 million players following five consecutive years of growth. The nearly two million player increase from 2023 (up 1.9 million from 23.8 million) marks a significant acceleration in excess of eight percent growth. • One in every 12 Americans played tennis in 2024 – the highest proportion on record. This exceeds the five-year average ratio of one in 16 Americans. • The game is increasingly more diverse, with 26 percent growth in Black / African American participation, representing a 662,000-player increase, and Hispanic players up 15.4 percent, to 4.54 million players over 2023. Senior players, too, are on the rise with a 17 percent increase in growth to 302K participants. • Tennis is also increasingly attracting a younger player base as players under 35 powered tennis’s expansion in 2024, contributing nearly two-thirds of all growth (+1.2 million players). The youth influence is especially clear among those under 25, who drove 45 percent of total gains.
According to the Chinese New Year, 2025 was the year of the snake, and Dallas shed more than its fair share of restaurants and bars.
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We actually started off on a high note with the closure of Salt Bae’s restaurant, Nusr-Et, which had the audacity to charge upwards of $1,000 for a steak.
After that, local favorites started dropping like flies. Many leases seemed to come to an end with an increase in demand for space sending rent skyrocketing. Along with rising food costs, local restaurants are taking a hit.
It’s not all bad, though. Peppered into the mix are some restaurants and bars in Dallas that closed, but were remodeled and reimagined into new concepts. Others are looking for new spaces with lower rent. The rest, however, are gone for good.
The beginning of this year will likely be no better than the last, and it’s as good a time as ever to get out and support your favorite local spots. Money tight? We know where to go.
These are all the Dallas restaurants that closed in 2025.
Dallas Mavericks star big man Anthony Davis might be facing season-ending left hand surgery after being injured in Thursday night’s game against the Utah Jazz, ESPN reported on Friday.
Davis reportedly underwent an MRI exam on Friday that showed ligament damage in the hand. Davis reportedly will seek a second opinion to see if surgery is needed.
ESPN reported Davis would miss at least six weeks if surgery is avoided.
Davis was injured with 2:52 left in the 116-114 loss while defending Utah star Lauri Markkanen on a drive to the basket. Davis was in obvious pain after the play and left the contest with 2:08 remaining after he was holding the hand and unable to defend Markkanen’s next basket.
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The timing of the injury could affect Dallas’ trade plans. The club reportedly planned to shop Davis prior to the 5 February trade deadline.
Davis hasn’t even been with the Mavericks for a year yet. He came over in the controversial and disastrous deal in which star Luka Dončić was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Davis, who turns 33 in March, is making $54.1m this season. He is due to make $58.5m next season and has a player option for $62.8m in 2027-28.
Davis has played in just 29 games for the Mavericks – nine last season and 20 this season.
He is averaging 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots this season. He is a 10-time All-Star.
Dallas Police Central Business District officers recovered 39 bags of crack cocaine during an arrest Tuesday.
The officers, working with the U.S. Marshal’s North Texas Fugitive Task Force, seized the drugs when they arrested 40-year-old Velisa Purvis, who was wanted on four outstanding felony warrants.
Officers spotted Purvis in the 1500 block of Garrett Avenue near Old East Dallas and took her into custody.
In addition to the cocaine, officers recovered two bags of suspected methamphetamine, drug packaging, money and marijuana.
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She now faces additional charges of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance between four grams and 200 grams and manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance between one and four grams for the crack cocaine, methamphetamine, currency, and individual packages with the intent to distribute.
