16 March 2022 | Tennis Queensland

During the 2022 Australia Open, eight of Queensland’s top ranked Open and Junior Players headed to Melbourne Park to contest the Australian Open People with Intellectual Impairments (PWII) Finals. The tournament is an invitational event, reserved for the top PWII players across Australia.

In tennis, there are three divisions of competitions for PWII tournaments – II-1 Intellectual Disability, II-2 Down Syndrome and II-3 Autism.

A strong contingent of Queensland players contested this year’s event with local talent, Archie Graham, Tim Gould and Hunter Thompson having strong performances in both the singles and doubles.

Australian Open PWII Champions:

II-1 Men’s Singles:              Archie Graham (QLD)

II-1 Women’s Singles:      Kelly Wren (NSW)

II-2 Open Singles:               Timothy Gould (QLD)

II-3 Open Singles:              Hunter Thompson (QLD)

II-1 Men’s Doubles:           Archie Graham (QLD) & Damian Phillips (NSW)

Players were given the full AO experience, each receiving accreditation, access to player facilities and warm up courts alongside some of the biggest names in tennis.

To add a bit of excitement to the tournament, this year’s event saw the addition of an inaugural team’s element, with players allocated into teams captained and mentored by none other than tennis royalty in Wally Masur, Pat Rafter and Alicia Molik.

 PWII II-3 AO Champion, Hunter Thompson said, “I have no words, meeting him was amazing (Pat Rafter). I found the courts in Melbourne played a lot faster than what I was use to and Pat gave me a few tips to help adjust to the conditions such as changing my racquet tension.”

Hunter Thompson’s mother, AJ said the event was, “an unbelievably surreal experience. It was really exciting to experience it with Hunter and to have the whole family travel down to support him was really special as well.”

“As a parent, it means more than we can explain. Unless you have walked a day in the shoes of these kids, seen the world through their eyes and heard the world through their ears, you cannot visually see their struggles. Any kid who works hard deserves opportunities in life. This experience has given him so much and I think we are going to see a much stronger Hunter.”

“We also have such a supportive tennis community, it really is a safe space for the kids to grow their love of the game, but also grow and understand themselves as people.”

Queensland State Development Squad Coach – PWD Performance, Alison Scott says, “We are incredibly proud of the efforts of all of our Queensland players. Our players have put in a lot of hard work over the last 18 months and to see them competing, getting great results and having fun at the Finals was awesome.”

“For those who are new to learning about the PWII pathways, the opportunities to train and compete have increased substantially, and for our players to be competing alongside the world’s greatest at the Australian Open is a phenomenal measure of support, recognition, development and growth of our sport.”

Congratulations to our Queensland Players who competed at this year’s event!

• Archie Graham
• Luke Barker
• Mitchell James
• Timothy Gould
• Alex Baker
• Hunter Thompson
• Hayden Ballard
• Nicolas Young

For further information regarding the performance and talent pathway for players with a disability, please feel free to contact Alison Scott (QLD State Development Squad Coach – PWD Performance).

E: [email protected]   M: 04055558172

 Join the Inclusive Tennis in Queensland Facebook Group HERE