Goa’s para athletes break new ground at state’s first wheelchair tennis tournament

Margao: For 20 years, wheelchair-user Vishant Nagvekar longed to hold a tennis racquet in his hand and smash the ball across the court. He grew up watching the sport on television but accessibility to courts was a huge problem, besides the sport is among the more expensive ones.
Vishant gave up on his dream and instead tried his hand at other sports like table tennis, basketball, badminton, athletics and swimming. The tennis dream though remained unfulfilled, until Saturday when he along with nine other Goans took part in the Wheelchair Challenger tennis tournament, organised by BPS Sports Club, here, on Saturday.
“It’s such an exciting feeling to play tennis,” Vishant, a state forest department official from Panaji, told TOI. “I’ve been trying to play tennis and get others to join me since 2005, but it was just not possible.”
The tournament was part of the Baale BPS Open 2025.
“None of us had ever tried our hand at tennis but when we trained together for the first time, it seemed like this was not an alien sport,” said Vishant.
“We had to adjust to the bounce and the movement (of the ball). I feel we have the talent to win medals at the national level.”
Wheelchair tennis is one of the fastest growing wheelchair sport in the world and fits seamlessly with the able-bodied game. There are no modifications to the size of the court, racquet or tennis balls. The main differences are the specially-designed wheelchairs and the ‘two-bounce rule,’ whereby the ball can bounce twice before being hit.
In Goa, normal wheelchairs were used to play tennis since the specially-designed ones for sports like badminton and tennis can cost approximately Rs 5 lakh. The regular ones are available for Rs 80,000.
“The organisers treated us well, even providing us with transport to get our personal wheelchairs here. They provided for all the playing equipment. We want to take this sport forward,” said Stany D’Souza, an architect from Margao, who made it to the final.
Watched by a decent crowd, the wheelchair tennis final, which preceded the men’s title clash, was an exciting affair between the pairing of Stany/Gauresh Marathe and Niklesh Pednekar/Mahesh Pogadala. It was a closely-fought battle with fortunes fluctuating. In the end, Niklesh and Mahesh held their nerve to edge out their opponents 5-3.
Long after the final concluded, the wheelchair players held on to their racquets and balls. Forming a semicircle, they played amongst themselves, lobbing the ball across, even trying to slice it back to the other end. Nobody knew when they’d get another chance.
“This is an expensive sport and we finally got a taste of what it feels like playing this sport, on a wheelchair. I only hope this is only the beginning,” said Moises Rodrigues, a Vasco-based municipal supervisor.
The Wheelchair Challenger tennis tournament, participants said, will help create awareness about the sport and eventually help Goa win medals at the national level, just like athletics, swimming and table tennis.
“We have so many persons with disabilities in Goa but when we tried to form a cricket team, we didn’t even get 13 players. Not many families allow the disabled to go out and play sports. They really don’t know what they are missing out on,” said Moises, who excelled in multiple para-sports, including table tennis, badminton, wheelchair cricket and basketball at last year’s Purple Fest.