The tenth day of the Australian Open means it’s the annual All Abilities Day.
The day began with exhibition matches featuring Dylan Alcott, the winner of 23 quad wheelchair slams, including The Gram Slam in doubles in 2019 and The Golden Grand Slam in singles in 2021.
Photo: Vanessa Taylor
Joining Alcott at Kia Arena were World No. 1 Blind and Low Vision (BLV) players Grace Hobbs and Ross Patterson (winner of the 2024 Newcombe Award for Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability); World No.1 Intellectual Disability player Archie Graham; para-standing tennis world champion Alex Hunt and promising junior in the deaf tennis pathway, Isabel Cairns.
Thirteen year old Isabel Cairns is the granddaughter of former New Zealand cricketer Lance Cairns. She shares with her grandfather not only athletic ability but deafness that has been improved by cochlear implants. At the age of just two, Isabel received the implants in both ears.
Photo: Vanessa Taylor
Alex Hunt was born without most of his left arm and last year became a world champion. In his branch of tennis, players with physical disability who don’t use wheelchairs, he has led the way as the first ever para-standing world champion in the PST1 category.
Photo: Vanessa Taylor
At one point, Hunt and Alcott donned blind & low-vision glasses to simulate the conditions that BLV players compete under. They struggled to complete a few points with the visual impairment and the different balls.
Ross Patterson and Grace Hobbs both play in the B4 level of BLV tennis. Unlike for other sports, the tennis B4 category is classified by the degree of clarity, for example sharpness, of the player’s vision.
Last September, Patterson won double gold at the International Blind Tennis Association BLV Tennis World Championships in Italy. He won the B4 men’s singles and the men’s open doubles (B2-B4) with Michael Leigh.
Hobbs also grabbed double gold at the World Championships. In the open doubles, she teamed with B2 player Courtney Webeck.
Like Isabel Cairns, Hobbs was born deaf and has cochlear implants. She is also visually impaired through retinitis pigmentosa which gradually caused her vision to deteriorate.
Due to her auditory impairment, Hobbs does not rely on the bells in the BLV balls but rather on the larger size and the softer texture which bounces lower and is easier for her to track.
Photo: Vanessa Taylor
A highlight of 2024 for Archie Graham, amongst his many titles, was the opportunity to compete on grass for the first time, and to do it at the legendary Queens Club in England.
Alongside the ATP 500 event that annually takes place at Queens, a PWII exhibition ran for three days. It was a fitting honour for a player named Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability at the 2023 Newcombe Awards, not least for the four gold medals he won at the Virtus Global Games in France.
Over on Margaret Court Arena, ten players from the BLV and para-standing worlds took to the court on a loose rotation trying to score friendly points.
Around the Melbourne Park precinct, the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships kicked off today and will feature its first-ever AO Junior Wheelchair Championship. Eight teens will play for the inaugural title.
Title photo of Saki Takamuro playing the first round of wheelchair singles on All Abilities Day by Rob Prezioso / Tennis Australia