Sterling High School senior Chelsie Brown, the two-time Kansas Class 3-2-1A girls state singles champion, and her women’s doubles teammate Emily Hangstefer placed third in the Deaflympics tennis tournament in Tokyo, Japan, and captured the bronze medal.
Brown, 17, and Hangstefer, 36, from Signal Mountain, Tenn., defeated France’s Marine Beney and Jennifer Lambert 6-3, 6-2 in the third-place match Monday on the Ariake Coliseum court.
Brown and Hangstefer lost in the doubles semifinals Saturday to Japan’s Rina Komokata and Riko Suzuki 6-2, 6-1.
Brown and Hangstefer defeated Italy’s Cristina Abrami and Asia Carrera 6-2, 7-5 in the women’s double quarterfinals and defeated France’s Jessica Gagnant and Emy Martins 6-2, 6-3 in the Round of 16.
Brown and mixed doubles partner Alfredo Galvez received a bye in the Round of 64. Brown also advanced to the consolation round of 32 in women’s singles.
According to Wikipedia, Emily Hangstefer is the youngest of six children in a tennis-playing family. She and two older brothers Jim and Daniel were born deaf.
Emily and Daniel Hangstefer are playing mixed doubles at the Deaflympics. Hangstefer is a former Deafalympics gold medalist.
Ariake Coliseum (Ariake Koroshiamu) is an indoor sporting arena in Ariake Tennis Park located in Ariake, Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is 15 hours ahead of Central time.
Ariake Coliseum has a capacity of 10,000 and is one of the few professional tennis venues with a retractable roof.
When Ariake Coluseum first opened, it had no roof. A sliding roof was installed in April 1991, making it the first stadium in Japan with a retractable roof.
