Brisbane QLD, Australia, 4 July 2017 | Tennis Queensland

To coincide with the first Queensland Tennis Wheelchair Open last week, a group of patients from Princes Alexandra Hospital, and the Spina Bifida Association, came and tried their hand at the sport.

The session was run by Andrew Ash, Tennis Queensland’s wheelchair tennis coach, and was followed by a tour of the Queensland Tennis Centre, before some time spent watching the Queensland Open finals.

For Catherine Clarkson, Joshua Brass and Shanaye Solomon (pictured above) it wasn’t their first time on court.

“I used to have lessons, and then I kind of stopped for a while, and then I did wheelchair lessons. The first time I did I played with my siblings,” said Clarkson. “It’s just fun.”

“It’s cool and it’s challenging sometimes…I would like to play it again,” said eight year old Brass.

Asked if he thought wheelchair tennis was one of the hardest sports in the world – which it is often termed by those who play it – Brass declared “It’s not! Hiking would have to be!”

Brass is a competitive swimmer and dreams of swimming in Tokyo at the Olympics. He will be 11 years old.

“I have two days for swimming, first I have normal swimming then I have squad training, squad training means I have to go the Olympics! My real goal is to go to Tokyo to the Olympics…I’m going to be doing it!”

Meanwhile, Shanaye Solomon has just begun cheerleading, but says she enjoys wheelchair tennis and doesn’t find it particularly challenging.

“I do cheerleading, I’m starting cheerleading, and I like playing basketball sometimes. I play tennis sometimes for PE and I do like it…it’s fun,” she said.