but to do it at home and win gold – that was my dream.’“I had a car accident when I was 16. I’d played tennis before then, and after the accident I [came across] wheelchair tennis in a newspaper article. I contacted the guy who did the story and we organised to meet up. He was in a chair and we hit some balls around, and ever since then I was hooked. Then I found out they had a tour and rankings, and so that motivated me to make it on the tennis circuit.
I was world champion in 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004. I’ve won the US Open eight times, the British Open seven times and the Australian Open eight times – so I’ve been pretty fortunate to play some of my best tennis at the big events.
I think the profile of the sport has risen steadily over the years just from the coverage we got from the Paralympics. But I know it’s a sport that flies under the radar; any wheelchair sport will always be a minority sport. I realised that from the [outset] but that wasn’t a reason not to become involved.
I’m also a real car lover. I lived in California for a while and I went out to a friend’s parents’ house in the desert where he had a beaten up old Mustang. We took it out on the open road and it was great. Ever since then I was stuck on it and ... a few years later I got the opportunity to buy one.
It costs under $1000 to modify a car. An engineering firm will fit [the modifications], and if you ever wanted to sell the car you can just remove [them] without any damage. If you just wanted to drive the car [normally], you [still] can.
My chair [sits on] the seat next to me. I can’t get in the driver’s side because I can’t fit the chair in front of me; the seat won’t go that far back and the steering wheel comes down. So I have to get in, put the chair on my lap, then crawl out from under the chair to get into the drivers’ side. Practicality is probably not one of the Mustang’s strong points – but I didn’t really buy the car for that!”
