It’s just Tennis for Para Athletes

By Thomas Conway

“It’s just tennis,” Wesley O’Brien emphasises, standing underneath the cavernous dome of Killaloe-Ballina Tennis Club’s indoor facility.

He’s talking to a sizeable crowd of players, parents, coaches and officials, all of whom have gathered together in the six-court, multi-surface club on the banks of the Shannon for an official Para-Standing Tennis Open Day recently.

His message is simple: everyone, regardless of ability or disability, is ultimately playing tennis. There are different types, adapted for different players and age-groups, but at the end of the day, it is one sport.

You may have read, either in these pages or elsewhere, about the concept of para-standing tennis, the newly emergent strand of the tennis family that is rapidly growing in this country and worldwide. Now supported by the International Tennis Federation, it currently has over 500 players across 50 countries and five continents, but what exactly is it?

Wesley, the Killaloe coach who has made it his personal mission to promote and enhance inclusivity within the sport, captures the essence of what this form of the game is all about:

“Para-standing tennis is relatively new in Ireland, it’s only been here for about a year or two,” he explains.

“It’s basically designed for people with limited mobility that don’t want to use a wheelchair. People with a physical disability or limited mobility. For example, you could be an amputee, a single-leg amputee, a single-arm amputee, a double-arm amputee, a double-leg amputee.”

There are, Wesley says, significant differences in terms of mobility between the different types of amputees. Hence, there are a variety of different para-standing categories with slightly modified rules. For instance, PST-1 and PST-2 players play with one bounce; while PST-3 and 4 are allowed two bounces. Otherwise, the rules are identical to mainstream tennis.

New opportunities

It is one thing to marvel at the likes of Alcaraz and Sinner and wonder how they do what they do. But to watch some of these para-standing players in action is, in a different way, equally mesmerising and indeed quite inspiring. The Irish para-standing team are here, helping to coach and mentor the gang of enthusiastic kids - one as young as four years of age - who have travelled from across the country to be in Killaloe on this bright Sunday morning.

One of those Irish players, Malahide’s Michael Beglin, is currently ranked second in the world and you’d know it from watching him. The 17-year-old describes himself as “an aggressive, full-court, front-foot player” who frequently comes to the net and likes to move around. Added to that, he strikes the ball masterfully.

A formidable force in mainstream tennis, Michael only came across this form of the sport about a year-and-a-half ago. Within that limited space of time, para-standing tennis has expanded massively. From his personal perspective, it has opened up new avenues in his life.

“It has just been growing so rapidly. It has given me so many new opportunities - I’ve travelled around to different countries, I’ve even travelled to Australia, at the age of 17,” he says animatedly.

Michael might be an elite-level player, but he stresses that participation at grassroots level is critical. The word is spreading, he feels, and events like this help enormously to showcase the sport.

“The more players the better, young or old,” he says.

“It doesn’t really matter, as long as they’re here and they’re participating.”

Chance encounter

Wesley is not the only driving force behind Ireland’s para-standing tennis movement. Dublin man Dave Smith is another one of the architects behind the project. A single-arm amputee, Dave is also a seriously good player. He had always played mainstream tennis, and two years ago he was in the middle of a tennis-themed holiday at the renowned Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca when a chance encounter with a stranger changed his life.

“I was at the breakfast buffet one morning and a guy with a prosthetic leg was talking to me at the coffee machine,” Dave recalls.

“So, he asked me if I was playing at the para-standing world championships in Turin? And of course I had never heard of the para-standing world championships in my life.”

Six weeks later Dave and his daughter Caoimhe travelled to the Italian city, and he made his competitive debut in that tournament. He actually got to a quarter-final, but that wasn’t the point, as he outlines.

“While playing was an amazing experience, it was nearly more special because of the amount of people I met with varying disabilities playing tennis, and seeing how they overcame challenges despite their different levels of disability,” he says.

Really, his daughter Caoimhe deserves significant credit. It was her repeated nagging that convinced Dave to set about trying to establish para-standing tennis in this country. Eventually he heard about Wesley’s efforts, and he got in touch. From there, things began to gather pace. A series of public open days last year helped to generate momentum.

Having Tennis Ireland come on board was crucial, and the newly-elected president of the body, Gerry Smyth, even makes an appearance at the event in Killaloe. Amicable and cheerful, the Galway man praises the efforts of all involved and offers his full support.

From a competitive perspective, the ultimate objective is for para-standing tennis to be represented at Grand Slams and at the Paralympics. On that front, you would imagine it’s more a question of when and not if. On a broader level, however, the goal is to make tennis more accessible and more inclusive. After all, as Wesley said, “it’s just tennis”. One sport, different surfaces, different forms, everyone included.