You only need to spend five minutes with Kelly Wren to realise how much tennis has changed her life.
An outgoing person who has the confidence to mingle with anyone in the room, tennis has provided Wren with the life skills and confidence to be herself.
Her legacy to PWII — players with intellectual impairment — tennis as a player and as a development coach was rewarded at the Australia Day Awards on January 26. She was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) award for significant service to tennis, basketball and to athletes with an intellectual disability.
With 30 years of service to the game, Wren is honoured to receive acknowledgment for her contribution to tennis.
“It’s so special. You are doing what you love. You appreciate what you have done in your career,” she said.
“[Tennis has] changed my life because of the opportunities there for people with a disability. I’m very grateful that tennis has been a part of my journey. It [hasn’t just] changed my life, it’s changed my family’s life.”
With her family being avid tennis lovers, Wren received her start in tennis after playing totem tennis in the back yard with her brother. After her parents noticed her impressive hand-eye coordination, they signed Wren up to play.
“My brother got the barbecue chairs out. We found a tennis ball. We found anything that was in the back yard, we were just kids,” she said. “We were hitting back and forth on our back patio, we had totem tennis still up on our grass lawn, pretty competitive people we are.”
Wren’s biggest idol is John Newcombe, after she met the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion at a charity event at the old White City Stadium in Sydney.
Playing a doubles match against Newcombe, alongside Newcombe’s doubles sidekick, Tony Roche, Wren was in awe of Newcombe’s charisma.
“His personality was just unbelievable,” she recalled. “I will never forget the way he just is himself.
“I was starting to hit really good, hard shots, and he goes, ‘Oh, my golly, girl!’ He was carrying on and then he said ‘Alright, what I’m going to do is I want you to go back where the line judge is’, and I’m standing there, and he’s glancing, he’s looking up and I’m thinking he’s going to ace it down the tee.
“He gives me a drop shot. I’m all the way back to the back wall; it’s like half a mile down there, and I really ran for it. He goes, ‘Don’t get it!’ And I just got my racquet to it, but it didn’t go over and he goes, ‘How did you get that?’ Because I was half a mile back.
“And that’s when I started thinking, I really like this sport.”
Wren’s passion for tennis has been passed on to future generations through her work as a development coach.
She believes playing tennis is all about having a go.
“I think just to get out there, have a go, being included out in the community, I think that’s where everything should start,” she said.
“I’m a big believer [of starting them young] because that’s where it should start, that’s how you get to this level.
“I think that’s more of a confidence thing to make parents think, ‘yes, my son or daughter can do this, I’m no different'.”
Wren is one of six Australians competing at the fourth annual AO Intellectual Disability Tennis Slam at Melbourne Park between Friday 30 January and Sunday 1 February. She is joined by Chloe Dunn, Archie Graham, Jack Kavenagh, Andriana Petrakis and Damian Phillips.