29 March 2023 | Tennis Queensland

The 2023 Queensland Blind & Low Vision (B/LV) Open is set to kick off the Tennis Australia Inclusion Events Calendar in Brisbane with nearly 30 players from across the country contesting the event this weekend.

Head Coach of Sunshine Tennis Jesse Parker is looking forward to the event, with four B/LV players from his local squad competing and 22 kids from the club volunteering as ball kids.

Sunshine Tennis has been coaching B/LV athletes at the club since early 2020, specialising in B1 and B2 classified players. The program has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with nine players currently receiving coaching every Saturday.

“One of the most important aspects of our B/LV program is that we ask kids at the club to help pick up balls and lead our B/LV players around the court,” said Jesse.

“It has helped us build a great community around the players. They love having the kids there and parents love having their kids be helpers as it’s a great growth experience for them. We find it helps with building confidence and perspective for life and a strong tennis community built on inclusion.”

“Coaching B/LV players has made our coaches better at tennis coaching and has shown them that everyone can play tennis from any walk of life. It has also taught them that you need to be willing to always upskill yourself and think outside of the box to coach different types of tennis and this is a challenge our coaches have loved taking on.”

Ben Dew, Tournaments Coordinator (Growth Segments) at Tennis Australia says, “With more than half a million Australians anticipated to have a vision impairment by 2030, B/LV tennis is one of the fastest growing blind sports in the country.”

“We’re expecting to see the sport continue to grow across the coming years with organisations such as MasterCard recently partnering with Blind Sports Australia (BSA) to grow and promote B/LV tennis across the country.”

“Tennis truly is a match for all and we are really proud of coaches such as Jesse who are leading the way in inclusive tennis programs in Queensland. We would love to see more coaches undertake training and development to expand their offerings.”

For coaches interested in finding out more about delivering B/LV tennis, please contact Queensland Coach Education Specialist Sam Bradshaw – [email protected]

The Queensland Blind & Low Vision Open starts from 11.30 am, this Saturday 1 April at Queensland Tennis Centre, Tennyson, with select matches being streamed through the Blind Sports and Recreations NSW ACT Facebook page. To stay up to date all draws, schedules and results can be viewed over the weekend via the 2023 Queensland BLV Open website.

For more information on BLV tennis opportunities head to: https://www.tennis.com.au/play/inclusion-and-diversity/blind-and-low-vision