Women's Captain Paul Walker

Role: Women’s captain
Birthdate: Jan. 16, 1964
Hometown: Lakeland, Fla.
Year started with wheelchair tennis: 1997
Number of World Team Cups: 14

USTA national wheelchair tennis coach Paul Walker will take a team to the World Team Cup for the 14^th time in 15 years, when Israel hosts the annual competition for the first time, May 13-18.

The Florida native took up wheelchair tennis in 1997 after being injured in a parachuting accident while serving as a commissioned officer in the United States Army three years earlier.

Walker reached career-high rankings of No. 31 in the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Men’s Division and No. 4 in the U.S. in the same category, both in 2005, before joining the USTA coaching staff for the 2005 World Team Cup in The Netherlands.

He began his tennis coaching career in 2002 at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Fla., where he coached for 13 years.

Under Walker’s mentorship, the U.S. women’s team finished third at the 2017 World Team Cup, the team’s best finish for more than two decades.

Walker, who also coached the U.S. junior team at the 2013 World Team Cup in Turkey, is expected to be part of the U.S. coaching staff at the Parapan American Games in Peru this August and at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in September 2020. 

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