Kemit-Amon Lewis lost his right hand, right foot and most of the fingers on his left hand to a bacterial infection in 2019. He made the finals at an international tennis tournament less than five years later.

Lewis, a Chevy Chase resident and marine biologist, contracted the infection while living and working in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Septic shock and multiple organ failure followed. He spent two weeks in a coma and roughly two months hospitalized before being discharged in September 2019.

By January 2020, Lewis was fitted with a prosthetic leg. He started rehabbing outdoors at a park near his home during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, working his way back to the sport he'd played competitively at Savannah State University.

That work paid off.

In January 2024, Lewis reached the finals in both singles and doubles at the Oceania Para-Standing Tennis Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Para-standing tennis is a category for athletes with limb differences who compete without a wheelchair.

"There isn't a limit to what the human body can do when your mind is right," Lewis said in a 2024 profile by The Fifty Most Interesting Athletes. "Start with the mind. Allow it to be strong enough to help the body overcome."

Lewis trains with support from the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, which has been instrumental in his competitive return, according to JTCC. Wilson Sporting Goods brought him onto its Wilson 360 Advisory Team, and Lewis has worked with Wilson engineers in Chicago to develop a prototype racket with a socket attachment for his right arm, equipment he hopes will benefit other para-standing athletes.

Montgomery Community Media aired a feature on Lewis titled "Standing Tall with Tennis" on Tuesday, Aug. 4, reported by MCM sports reporter Frank Hanrahan.