SBS World News Radio: Emerging talent prepares for wheelchair tennis debut
After a devastating motorbike accident left Martyn Dunn with severe spinal damage, a career of any kind let alone a sporting career seemed an impossibility.
But just over 12 months later, he is preparing to join the ranks of the wheelchair tennis elite with his first international tournament next week.
In November 2015 Martyn Dunn lost the ability to walk, but never his desire to win.
Exactly one year ago, the 24-year old swapped his wheelchair for a sports-chair, determined to turn a negative situation into a positive life move.
"Now look at me. In a couple of weeks I'll be overseas to play the sport, so as the saying goes when one door closes another one opens - that's exactly what's happened to me."
Dunn was an apprentice carpenter, a weekend footy player and a larrikin who never sat still, but all that changed in a split second.
Riding his motorbike home from a friend's house, he collided with a brick wall.
The accident left him with a back broken in four places, a shattered shoulder, broken ribs and the prospect of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
"It was very hard to adjust to such a huge change in my life, words can't really describe it but I always try and make the best out of everything."
Two months later, Dunn says an unexpected activity turned up on his rehabilitation schedule.
"I was at the Royal Talbot, the rehabilitation centre in Melbourne, and I saw on my timetable 'wheelchair tennis': I didn't even know the sport existed."
He hadn't picked up a racquet since he was a kid, but his athleticism and drive caught the attention of Tennis Australia talent scouts.
Head wheelchair tennis coach Greg Crump says Dunn's past experience playing sports and training was a definite advantage.
Now 12 months into his training, Crump says Dunn is making progress.
"The old overnight success takes about 10 years, so he's one year into it. So at the moment he's played a couple of tournaments, he's got an international ranking, he's got a start."
Dunn emerged on the domestic wheelchair tennis opens circuit last November, and is now preparing to make his debut in international competition in next week's Perry New Zealand Open.
Crump says Dunn is at the beginning of what can be a viable athletic career.
"It's gone from a recreation sport and now it's a full-time professional sport where athletes are making a lot of money each year with sponsorship."
It's an opportunity that Dunn is grabbing with both hands.
"I never wanted to go to university. I always hated sitting behind a desk. Now coming out here and playing tennis and trying to make this my life is definitely a huge positive out of a situation that was a huge negative."
He's aiming to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
