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Upper East Side Teen Shakes Off Injury to Compete in Israeli Tennis Tourney

By Shaye Weaver | June 22, 2017 2:43pm
 Robbie Werdiger, 15, playing at the Cary Leeds Center in The Bronx.
Robbie Werdiger, 15, playing at the Cary Leeds Center in The Bronx.
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DNAinfo/Shaye Weaver

UPPER EAST SIDE — Horace Mann student Robbie Werdiger hits the tennis courts hard — so hard, that despite breaking his hip in April, he's on his way to Israel after being one of 12 American teens picked to play in the World Maccabiah Games next month.

The 15-year-old Upper East Side resident started playing tennis when he was 6 and he hasn't wavered. Every day, his mother, Miki Kagan, takes him to the Cary Leeds Center in The Bronx to practice in the New York Junior Tennis & Learning program, where he practices all day each summer. While school is in session, he plays on the Horace Mann tennis team, as well as competing in tournament on weekends.

Now, Robbie's dogged persistence has paid off.

 

Robbie Werdiger @r_werdiger practicing for the Maccabiah Games in Israel.

A post shared by Shaye Weaver (@dnashaye) on

During the winter, the sponsor of the U.S. team to the World Maccabiah Games, Maccabi USA, held an open tryout on Long Island for Jewish athletes, where Robbie sparred against 50 teens from around the country to land a spot on the team.

Six girls and six boys from across the nation were selected for the junior team, but despite beating out so many players, Robbie is still hard on himself.

"I'm really excited but kind of nervous," Robbie told DNAinfo New York at the Cary Leeds Center this week. "I don't know what to expect. I don't know the level of competition that's going to be there. I still have a lot to go compared to some of the other kids I'm competing with who play more hours during the week, who go to easier schools or don't even go to school."

From July 4 to July 18, Robbie will compete alongside more than 1,100 American athletes, and among 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries, participating in 43 different sports.

Robbie also is still recovering from breaking part of his femur during a match he was playing for Horace Mann in April. When he lunged for a ball, his hip popped, but he managed to finish one last game to secure victory after laying on the ground during a timeout.

"I figured I might as well play one game while I was injured," he explained. "Somehow I served... after that I couldn't really walk. I didn't think it was that serious. I had pain in the area for awhile building up to the injury, but I had no idea what it was."

His doctor, Dr. Abigail Allen, the chief of pediatric orthopedic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, said the femur's flexor muscle to the hip broke off due to overuse.

"In general, the paradigm has shifted since I was a child. A lot of kids like Robbie are 'tennis, tennis, tennis,' and they don’t switch to something else, so the body does the same things over and over again," she explained. "That takes a huge part in the overall growth and development. He will recover fine."

Robbie, who also fills his time by writing for his school newspaper, The Horace Mann Record, and For the Win, is still going through painful physical therapy, but that hasn't reined in his intensity on the court.

"I'm very proud of him," Kagan said. "He's playing as well as he's ever played. He's ready to go to Israel."