By JARROD POTTER
TROPHIES and medals have always been part of champion tennis player Daniela Di Toro’s career – but a recently awarded accolade stands out as her most prized.
A former student at Dandenong-based St John’s College, five-time Paralympic wheelchair tennis player Di Toro, 39, was honoured to receive the Victorian Spirit of Tennis Award at Tennis Victoria’s awards’ dinner last week.
Accepting her award from last year’s winner, Colin Stubs, and joined by inaugural winner Frank Sedgman, Di Toro’s was recognised for her exceptional playing career as well as her work helping others recover from injury at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre.
“I was pretty shocked to win the Spirit of Tennis Award,” Di Toro said.
“The list of the people who have won that (award) are amazing, incredible people who have been contributing to the game of tennis in this country and the world.
“You don’t think you’re making an impact, you just think you’re doing what you do, but it recognises a little bit of what I have done and it’s not just hitting tennis balls.”
The significance of the award also struck Di Toro for a unique reason in an illustrious career full of achievements and honours – highlighted by nine consecutive Australian Wheelchair Tennis Open singles titles.
It was not an award based upon disability or given just to disabled athletes.
“For me it was one of the few awards that I’ve won that makes no mention of my disability,” Di Toro said.
“It’s just my name on a Spirit of Tennis board – it’s quite profound and it’s dawning on me more and more.
“It’s pretty rare to be recognised like that and it’s a humbling honour.”
Despite being a former world number one, and multiple Australian Wheelchair Tennis Open winner, Di Toro has been overlooked for other awards in the past which she puts down to a divide between able-bodied and wheelchair tennis.
“My results on paper should be compared to whomever else’s,” Di Toro said.
“The first year the Newcomb Award came out Sam Stosur won it – and she absolutely deserved it, don’t get me wrong – but that year I finished number two in the world while she finished number four and I think we were comparable in titles that we won.
“I won the disability award that year, but my great ambition is so that any other player who comes onto the tour, it’s not about putting them in the disability category, but to see their game for what it is.
“My thing has always been about to create an integration and inclusion aspect so it’s just about tennis.”
Di Toro believes her time in the top ranks of tennis is over, with no aspirations for the Rio Paralympics having sustained a chemical burn in recent years that has shifted her gaze to table tennis.
She wanted to thank countless coaches and administrators who strived to better promote wheelchair tennis.
“This award is really clearly a result of so many people having an impact for so many years,” Di Toro said.
“Tennis Victoria in particular has actually backed the players of this sport for so very long.
“It’s a real shout out to those men and women of the last 30-40 years who had a vision for tennis in this state and I guess that’s impacted the rest of the country as a result.”
