Head Over Heels
British tennis player Francesca Jones, 20, could find a note or two that defines her life in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz—perhaps this one: “You have plenty of courage, I am sure…All you need is confidence in yourself.” As a child, she was told by her doctors she would never play tennis. Jones was born with ectrodactyly ectodermal dysplasia syndrome—she has four fingers on each hand, and seven toes on her feet. But she is a fighter and, at 10, she went to the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona. “Balance is a big thing,” she said in a video. “When you do have fewer toes, you don’t have much to put your weight to.” Now the spunky, can-do Brit has qualified for next month’s Australian Open.
