(Transcript from World News Australia)
The story of wheelchair tennis is littered with stories of sheer guts and determination.
Each player has overcome the odds to play at elite levels, and the sport itself is matching that grit as it evolves into a compelling international competition.
Nikki Canning reports.
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Australian wheelchair tennis player Janel Manns is 47 years old.
Aged 32, she fell over in a bathroom with a wet floor, and was left an incomplete paraplegic.
Despite not starting to play wheelchair tennis until she was 38, she is currently ranked 33rd in the world.
Japan's former world number one, Shingo Kunieda, developed a tumour in his spinal cord when he was nine.
Kunieda is particularly noted for a three-year, 106-match consecutive winning streak.
Australian 23-year-old Adam Kellerman is currently ranked 17th in the world.
"I started when I was 17, about seven years ago. I had cancer in my leg when I was 13 - they removed my hip so I couldn't play sport - for about three years I did no sport. I was really depressed and upset. I found wheelchair tennis and it really changed my life. I was a really sporty kid and when I couldn't play sport I was devastated so when I found wheelchair tennis, I loved it from the first time I tried it."
That doesn't mean it was easy.
"It was the hardest thing I had ever done. If the ball wasn't hit within my reach there was no chance I could get it. I had no idea how to move the wheelchair. But I loved the challenge and I loved that it got me outside and competing again. I am a very competitive person."
Kellerman says the time needed to train and the costs involved with pursuing the sport are substantial but athletes are helped by Australia's Paralympic committee and Tennis Australia, while sponsors are a vital part of the support funding mix.
43-year-old Frenchman Stephane Houdet is ranked number two in world wheelchair tennis.
He was on holiday in 1996 when he and a fellow vet decided to ride across Europe on motorbikes.
While the accident on that trip changed his life completely, it did lead him back to his childhood talent for tennis.
A former world number one, Houdet won two International Tennis Federation grand slam titles last year - France and US.
He says the sport is changing very fundamentally.
"(In) the past, it was mainly done by rich countries. We were able to pay attention to their disability. So now, as it is a Paralympic sport, it's professional in tennis, and because we play all over the world we have many young players - players who started to play, to learn, in a chair. So they also have an advantage from this - they don't have a past as an able-bodied player, they don't have the reflexes of someone who was standing up and now has to change their game, change their vision of the ball, and change their mobility: they're very used to the mobility so they improve a lot."
Stephane Houdet says there's a new focus for the sport's developers.
"We need to focus on kids. That's what we have now in different countries. Like in South Africa: South Africa has started a program and they say, 'Do you want to play tennis?' They play anywhere: in a parking lot, at a supermarket - anywhere. They don't look for insurance to make sure everything is perfect; they just enjoy, just try. And they have a lot of players coming in."
And now Houdet is determined to share his sport as widely as he can - even with athletes who are not bound to a wheelchair but just choose to play in one.
"For me, anyone who wants to play in a chair can play in a chair, and then we'll have only one world. There is no Paralympics in Olympics; no disable in able. We can just share a new game, which is playing in a chair. We could be playing on rollerblades, on bicycles - whatever. By sitting in a chair you all play the same game. So this is my dream - to share with everyone."
Meanwhile, Australian Adam Kellerman's considerable determination is being brought to bear on a new goal.
His sights are set firmly on Rio in 2016.
"Yeah, I'm trying to beat everyone. My goal is number one in the world. And I'm really focused on Gold at the Rio Paralympics - that's what's driving me; everything's going towards that."
