‘No one’s the freak’: How Adam Hills fell in love with para-standing tennis

When comedian Adam Hills, who was born without a right foot, was a child, doctors advised his parents, Bob and Judy, not to rush to his aid when he fell over.

“Just treat him like any other normal kid,” was the advice.

Comedian Adam Hills wants more people to know about para-standing tennis.Credit: Penny Stephens

Hills, 53, now shudders at that use of “normal”. “I never felt disabled,” he said.

He told his parents he wanted to go to Wimbledon to play against able-bodied kids. While that didn’t happen, on Friday he will be competing in Hawthorn in a new kind of tennis championship – a para-standing tournament for people with a physical disability who play tennis standing.

“It’s a new thing for Australia [which is] annoying, but it’s an oversight – there’s no malice,” Hills said.

Nathan Ryan is the tournament director of the Oceanic Para Standing Tennis Championship, which runs from Friday to Sunday at the Grace Park Hawthorn Club.

“There’s never been anything like this in Australia,” Ryan said.

Hills practises with Kai Ryan, who will also compete in the Oceania Para Standing Tennis Championship.Credit: Penny Stephens

“Tennis is such an accessible sport, there’s tennis courts in every town you go to.”

Ryan’s short-statured son Kai, 18, will compete in the tournament.

As a tennis dad, Ryan found that getting playing time for para-standing athletes such as Kai was often regarded as too hard.

“That fuelled me to do something,” he said.

The new tournament is recognised by the International Tennis Federation and has a range of sponsors, including prosthetics maker Ossur.

“This has been a lovely, lovely way for me to get back into tennis and be around similar people,” said Hills, who did gymnastics and played rugby league and golf growing up.

“Because when you’ve got a disability, there’s an unspoken mindset and community. This is what I love about disabilities sport.

‘The analogy I use is it feels like people have built this building. And they have put stairs in for able-bodied people and a ramp for people in a wheelchair. But they have forgotten about any other disabilities in the middle.’

Adam Hills

“For every person here, [being] at an able-bodied tournament or even just walking down the street gets looked at differently – understandably. They are – and I am going to use the word – the ‘freak’. And I’m the freak.

“But when everyone’s got a disability, no one’s the freak. So everyone here can just drop their shoulders and go: ‘No one’s going to feel weird around me – we’re all just the same’.”

Competitors play in one of four categories, depending on whether they are short-statured, have cerebral palsy, an acquired brain injury, or limb deficiencies or loss.

“It’s a safe sport,” said Kai. “It’s a connection with other people.”

The pressures of disabled team sports are absent in para-standing tennis, he said. “If you stuff up, you stuff up yourself. You don’t have to worry about others.”

Hills, who was born with an ankle joint but without his right foot, uses one of two prostheses depending on whether he is playing sport. And he’ll be playing more tennis next week.

On Tuesday, he’ll line up against wheelchair tennis champ and former Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott in an exhibition match during the Australian Open for All Abilities Day.

”I saw Dylan the other day and he said he hasn’t hit a ball for two years,” Hills said, adding that his opponent was now practising in earnest.

Para-standing tennis – also called adaptive standing tennis – is advanced in Japan, the UK and Chile, but is in its infancy in Australia.

“Every now and then I have gone online [and looked at] ‘disability tennis’ and it always comes up as wheelchair,” Hills said.

“One thing I have learnt is that there is a whole bunch of Paralympians out there – swimmers and sprinters – who would much rather play tennis.

The long-term goal is to see the sport at the Australian Open alongside the wheelchair, blind, intellectual disability and deaf competitions, as well as at the Paralympics and Invictus Games.

“The analogy I use is it feels like people have built this building,” Hills said. “And they have put stairs in for able-bodied people and a ramp for people in a wheelchair. But they have forgotten about any other disabilities in the middle.”

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.