Wheelchair tennis is a popular sport, but the small pool of participants in WA means strong players struggle to find a competitive match. Now one wheelchair athlete is smashing down barriers, by joining an able-bodied men's team.
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00:00Wayne Arnott has always loved tennis, but in the last decade he's had to learn a vastly
00:07different game.
00:09After losing his legs, he's embraced wheelchair tennis and is Australia's Over 35s champion.
00:15And now he's the first wheelchair athlete to play in the state pennants competition
00:20against able-bodied players.
00:23It's all about the practice and all about trying to improve the game and trying to get
00:26more and more people aware that wheelchair athletes are athletes the same as a normal
00:31tennis player.
00:32In wheelchair tennis, the rules are modified to allow the ball to bounce twice before a
00:36player hits a return.
00:39In Mr Arnott's case, it's a hybrid.
00:41He gets two bounces, but his opponent only one.
00:44A good tennis player, he's a nice bloke, he should be received well.
00:47Even the people I play against, they're all welcoming.
00:49There's not anybody that comes and says, I don't want to play against a wheelchair player.
00:52And the governing body is helping to drive change.
00:56When we saw that Wayne needed to have a bigger opportunity from a competitive play landscape,
01:02we saw a really great reason that he could join into our summer league competition.
01:06While the enthusiasm for inclusion is there, there's a lot of ageing infrastructure at
01:10clubs in WA, and that can mean accessibility is a problem.
01:14It is a challenge with some of the ageing infrastructure.
01:17It's something that Tennis West is working really closely with the clubs, with local
01:20governments in particular, to seek funding to upgrade facilities.
01:24And Mr Arnott's home club of Safety Bay doesn't have disabled toilets, with Rockingham Council
01:30committing $320,000 to make the clubrooms wheelchair friendly.
01:36Mr Arnott is reluctant to describe himself as a trailblazer, saying he just wants to
01:40raise awareness.
01:41Whether it's pickleball, paddleball, whatever, there are sports that people can play.
01:46Playing the long game for inclusion.