Dana Mathewson: 'I'm ending my playing career doing something I love.'
Eleven months ago Dana Mathewson began a new chapter in her life after getting married. Having then thought that 2024 might be her last season on tour, at Paris 2024 she suggested that a fourth Paralympic Games on home soil at LA 2028 could still be in the offing.
However, on the eve of this year’s NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters, the 33-year-old two-time Doubles Masters finalist announced in a heartfelt video on her social media that the ITF’s year-end championships would bring the curtain down on a storied and illustrious career.
“It always really mattered to me to end my career with this tournament,” said Mathewson after opening her last Singles Masters campaign against Jiske Griffioen. “It’s definitely a different kind of tournament. But, to be honest, in Paris (at the Paralympics), because this year has been so full of strong players I didn’t foresee myself qualifying for the Singles Masters.
“It was always going to be something where I would play Doubles Masters and end my career doing something I love. If you look at my track record, I’m arguably a better doubles player than I am a singles player. So I’m thrilled to have qualified for Singles Masters as well - and in terms of my own pride and the fact that I’m ‘dropping the mic’, so to speak, it means a lot to me that I get to end at such a prestigious event.”
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Mathewson’s own assessments of her relative merits as a singles player and as a doubles player are maybe harsh, but possibly fair. The reigning Parapan Am Games women’s singles and doubles gold medallist also won her only Grand Slam title in women’s doubles at Wimbledon in 2022 alongside Yui Kamij. Alongside those achievements she has also represented USA on 12 occasions and won medals at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.
While Mathewson’s third NEC Singles Masters since 2021 sees her attempting to go beyond he round-robin group stage of the event for the first time, only once in six previous Doubles Masters appearances has she not made it out of the round-robin group stage of the competition and she is twice a finalist, in 2016 and 2018.
Both of those Doubles Masters finals came alongside close friend Louise Hunt and it is Hunt’s post-retirement career that Mathewson is looking to in planning her own next chapter.
“In the immediate future I do very much want to stay involved in tennis,” she says. “I think that one person that I’m lovingly modelling my future career on is one of my best friends, Louise Hunt. She’s now a consultant and she does so many thing with the LTA, with the ITF, she does speaking engagements at schools, she’s written a book, she’s done all sorts of things and that really excites me.
“There are so many things that I’m interested in and I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into anything at this point in time,” adds Mathewson. “With the growth that wheelchair tennis has and the opportunities that it has, it would be a mis-step for me to not give myself the opportunity to take as many of those chances as I can.
“I’m looking forward to helping our juniors out at the USTA. So getting to practice with players like Maylee Phelps and Charlie Cooper in a hitting capacity. I would also love to be involved in any sort of tournament organisation, commentary, all sorts of things like that.”
For now Mathewson, who this week is at her equal career-best singles ranking at No.7, still has competition in Arnhem to focus on. And to be still riding high in the upper echelons of the sport is special to her.
“It means a lot to me,” she says. “It’s a testament to how much work I’ve put in. It’s easy to think ‘I’ll put the work in and it’ll all work out for me’, but that’s not always the case with tennis. Sometimes the scales just don’t tip your way by the tiniest margin and you lose.
“I’m still a very competitive person, but I’m at peace with how I play this week,” Mathewson adds. “But I’m feeling different than I would normally feel at tournaments. I just want to play well. Of course, I want to win, but if you’re going to lose, this is the event to lose at. Every single person here is so good, so there is no shame in losing to anybody here.
“Even though I lost against Jiske I was really proud of myself that I was brave the whole time,” she adds. “I went for a lot of shots … some of them were questionable attempts, but I went for everything. The good thing about Masters is that it’s pool play and so I’m not done and I still get to play doubles with Manami (Tanaka).”