Kellerman wins first national title
ADAM Kellerman booked his spot in the 2016 Australian Open with a win at the first national wheelchair tennis championships in Bendigo last weekend.
The star player, who is Australia’s top-seeded wheelchair tennis player, told The AJN this week that he played his first tournament at the same venue so it was an unbelievable feeling.
“The past six months have been really good for me and I’m really excited to have won where I played my first tournament,” Kellerman, who went to school at Masada College, said.
“I’ve been playing some of the best tennis of my career and I’m excited to start strong again next year.”
As the winner of the tournament Kellerman earns a wildcard spot in the Australian Open.
“To actually be there and next to the great tennis players, and following in the footsteps of great Australian wheelchair tennis players David Hall and Daniela Di Toro … I’m just looking to do Australia proud.”
It’s been a big month for Kellerman because he was also a finalist for a prestigious Australian Tennis award. Kellerman last year won the award for most outstanding athlete with a disability, but was pipped at the post this year by Dylan Alcott at the awards ceremony on Monday night, where the Newcombe Medal was also presented.
But that won’t stop Kellerman, who will wear the green and gold when he represents Australia at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio next year.
His mother, Ruth, told The AJN this week that her family has already booked flights to Brazil.
“We are extremely proud of him and it is amazing that he will compete in Rio,” she said.
“To be competing in his second Paralympics is great, but we are so proud of the way he conducts his life and the way he makes the best of everything that he can.
“I need a second cupboard for all of his trophies now,” she said.
Kellerman competed at the 2012 London Paralympic Games and then in 2013 picked up Australia’s first two gold medals at the 19th Maccabiah Games in Israel.
He won the singles even and doubles event, without losing a set, despite being in Israel for only one week. Kellerman was a fit young athlete when, in 2003, just after he celebrated his bar mitzvah, he learned that he had cancer in his hip.
Four years later he started playing wheelchair tennis.
“It got me out of my depression.
“I needed the sport.
“I loved playing sport, and without being outside I wasn’t myself. Once I found wheelchair tennis, I found somewhere I belonged; I had similar people who knew what I went through.”
JOSHUA LEVI
comments