In September, 2022, a man from Prescott, Arizona named Andrew Bogdanov was hired by the United States Tennis Association to work as a technician for the US Open Wheelchair Tournament.

In September 2023, Andrew Bogdanov pushed onto Court 11 here at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and competed in the US Open Wheelchair Championships, in quad singles draw.

When the movie of Bogdanov’s life is made (and one absolutely should be made), there will be no need to embellish facts, change the narrative or add a fancy shine to it. The truth is pretty incredible when it comes to Bogdanov’s tennis rise.

“This is beyond our wildest imagination,” Bogdanov’s father, Peter, said while watching the first set of his son’s first Grand Slam match. Peter, his wife Layne, coach Chris Howard and a group of about 10 were in the crowd at Court 11, wearing white “Team Bogdanov” hats and cheering on their favourite competitor.

“He’s a great athlete, always has been, but to make the US Open this quickly....” Peter shook his head. “It’s pleasantly surprising.”

Standing a few feet away was Sharon Hemerka, Andrew’s girlfriend of four years. Beaming with pride while watching Bogdanov compete, Hemerka explained that she absolutely believed her boyfriend would be here.

“He’s such a hard worker and so athletically gifted that I knew he’d get here one day, if he put his mind to it,” Hemerka said. “This just fills my heart. It’s overwhelming to watch this. I can’t even begin to tell you.”

Let us begin to tell you then. Our story starts on Feb. 14, 2014, when the-then 19-year-old Bogdanov broke his neck while snowboarding. Always a great athlete as a kid, Andrew played soccer and then high school football at Bradshaw Mountain High.

But the C7 spinal cord injury put a huge halt to everything he was doing with his life.

“A lot of people sit on the couch and are depressed when this happens,” Bogdanov said after his match. “For me, it was another chance at life. I almost died, but I still had a lot to live for.”

While becoming an athletic trainer at New Horizons Disability Empowerment Center in Prescott, Bogdanov dabbled in a few sports like hand-cycling.

Then, when Covid struck the world in 2020, the adaptive team sports Bogdanov enjoyed were shut down.

So, armed with tennis rackets from Goodwill and some from his dad’s closet (Peter was a player in his younger years), Bogdanov began playing around with a new sport.

He fell in love, hard. The strength required, the mental agility, and the knowledge that he could get good at this if he really put his mind to it.

By late 2020, he started competing in the C division of USTA Tournaments, and started winning. He started moving up, and he kept on winning, and by early 2022, Bogdanov believed he was ready for the open division

There were no ITF classification sites near Arizona, so he travelled to Montreal to get rated.

In early 2023, his pro career really took off. But first, he came to the US Open last September and changed tyres and fixed wheelchairs.

“I told the other techs here last year that I was going to be out there one day, playing with the quad guys and competing for the title,” Bogdanov said. Then he laughs.

“They were supportive, but I think they were kinda like ‘OK Andrew, right, sure.’” And when I said it, I didn’t mean I’d be here this year!”

But with the quad division draw doubling in size to 16 players from this year, Bogdanov had a tiny opening. And then he won a few tournaments in 2023, and got his world ranking up to No. 21. Like most wheelchair players, Bogdanov has massively strong arms, and for a guy who’s paralysed from the neck down, he can smack the tennis ball pretty hard.

Finally, a few months ago Bogdanov got the call: He was receiving a wild card into the quad division (he’s also playing doubles with multiple US Open singles and doubles champion David Wagner).

And despite the oppressive New York heat, Bogdanov competed hard on Tuesday. South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi, the No. 3 seed, came away with a 6-2 6-2 win, but Bogdanov got four games off one of the best players in the world.

And really, just being there to compete was all the triumph Bogdanov needed.

“What an honour to play in this match,” Bogdanov said. “I looked over to the side of the court at the start of the match and saw my family, and my girlfriend here to support me, and it almost brought tears to my eyes. To have them fly across the country to be here, I get emotional thinking about it.”

Start those cameras rolling, Hollywood.

A full list of results from the 2023 US Open Wheelchair Championships is available here.