He learned tennis in North Bay, Ont., and now he’s playing at majors in his wheelchair | CBC News

Rob Shaw learned tennis growing up in North Bay, Ont., and has now made the finals of three major tournaments while in a wheelchair.

Most recently, Shaw and his doubles partner, Heath Davidson, reached the finals at Wimbledon.

Shaw told CBC’s Morning North he started playing tennis when he was about eight because his father was in the sport.

“I was playing with kids who were much older than I was,” he said.

“But that, I think, forced me to get better, probably faster, than if I had been playing with kids my own age.”

Shaw said although he was a good tennis player, he wasn’t good enough to play professionally. As a teenager, he started coaching.

Then, at age 21, an accident changed his life.

He was diving into his family’s backyard pool — something he had done hundreds of times. But he lost his footing.

“So I just happened to catch my foot on the ledge of the pool this time and got a little bit too much height, a little too vertical and came down and sort of grazed my head along the bottom of the pool,” Shaw said.

“And that caused me to have my C5 and C6 spinal cord injury.”

Shaw could only stand for a short time and had to use a wheelchair to get around. He said many of his friends and family worried he would give up on tennis.

But even before his injury, he had started coaching wheelchair tennis at a recreational level.

Shaw said he connected with wheelchair tennis player Gary Luker, who helped him get started.

Because of his injuries, Shaw said, he has lost strength in his hands and has to tape his tennis racket to his forearm.

“I tape my hand in with hockey tape first so it’s nice and tight,” he said.

“And then I put reverse duct tape on it so that it’s sticky so that when I’m pushing on my push rim I have a bit of friction on there.”

Moving up the ranks

As he learned to play wheelchair tennis, he started to rise up the international ranks and excelled at doubles.

“So in singles, covering the full court, I often get into a lot of trouble just not being able to keep up with some of these top guys, whereas in doubles, you know, you give me half a court, my strokes are really good and I’m clever enough to outsmart a lot of opponents.”

His breakthrough was earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic when he qualified for the Australian Open, but he couldn’t make it because of travel restrictions at the time.

“I thought I just blew my only chance of playing in a major,” Shaw said.

But in the last 16 months, he has had the chance to play at the Australian Open, U.S. Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

Shaw said tennis is one of the few sports where a wheelchair athlete can make a living if they are among the world’s top players. Winning a major tournament can net around $100,000.

His next goal is to qualify for the Paris Paralympics in 2024.

If he accomplishes that goal, Shaw, now 33, said he’ll be closer to retirement from professional play. 

“I’ll definitely take off the tape at some point and I can’t wait for that moment in the sense of letting my hand heal up.”