North Bay’s Rob Shaw is one of four Canadian wheelchair tennis players who will be making their Parapan American Games debuts in Lima next month.

That announcement from the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Tennis Canada on Monday.

Shaw is the highest-ranked member of the Canadian wheelchair tennis team at world No. 8 and is the reigning four-time national quad singles champion.

He reached the Top 10 for the first time in 2018 when he reached his biggest career final on home soil, the ITF 1 series Birmingham Classic.

Shaw holds an 18-5 match record in 2019 so far, including three ITF titles.

“Four years ago I was selected as a torch bearer for the 2015 Parapan Am Games in Toronto, and I never imagined being able to compete in them four years later,” said Shaw in a release. “Qualifying for Lima is the biggest accomplishment of my sporting career thus far and I can’t wait to represent Canada at my first multi-sport Games.”

Shaw and fellow Canadian Mitch McIntyre, currently ranked a career high world No. 27 in singles, will be among the first quad athletes to compete at the Parapan Am Games.

Lima 2019 marks the first time the quad classification in wheelchair tennis, a mixed gender category for athletes who have impairments affecting both their upper and lower limbs, has been added to the Parapan Am calendar.

Shaw and McIntyre, who both also helped Canada to a sixth-place finish at the World Team Cup tennis event earlier this year, will be competing in singles and teaming up together in doubles should there be enough teams for a draw.

Two athletes will be competing in the men’s tournament in Lima – Thomas Venos and Jonathan Tremblay. At 20 years old, Venos is the youngest of the group and has been on the rise since starting the sport under four years ago. He is Canada’s No. 1 men’s player with a world ranking of No. 111, and recently helped the University of Alabama win a national championship.

Wheelchair tennis action in Lima will start August 24 with men’s singles action and conclude August 30 with the quad singles final.

 

Photo by Mara Chaplin