Dermot facing challenges in his quest to reach Paralympics

So near yet so far; the 26-year-old from Burton Latimer has been dealt a series of challenges and frustrations since first stricken with a debilitating disease at the age of six.

Now all his hopes and aspirations are being switched to Japan at the same time in 2021 when he hopes to represent Great Britain over 10 days in a 64-draw event.

Bailey was close to Paralympic selection for London in 2012 and closer still in Rio four years later when he travelled to Brazil to get a bird’s eye view of the tournament, a schedule intended to lend him valuable experience of the event.

Now at a time when his ranking finally qualifies him for selection as one of the four British representatives, the curse of the global pandemic has decreed otherwise.

As well as any uncertainty surrounding next year’s event, Bailey’s latest list of headaches include the loss of half his local sponsorship funding and the knowledge he may have to defend most of his ranking points to gain selection for the re-arranged event.

It’s another cruel twist in a life which has thrown him its share of curved balls.

Meanwhile, there also remains a question mark over his classification status as a wheelchair competitor, something which is almost certain to also knock out seven-times Grand Slam doubles Paralympian champion Alfie Hewett after new regulations were brought into force last August.

Bailey said: “It does seem to have been a case of one thing after another.

“Respecting classification of my being able to compete as a wheelchair player next year, I am hoping common sense will prevail when the Tokyo Paralympics does go ahead.

“It is not as though I can compete with other (locally based) people such as Kyle Rae.

“Although I do not spend all my life in a wheelchair, I need to use one, and crutches to get about as well.

“If I’m not allowed to play wheelchair tennis, that will be it.”

In early March, Bailey’s plans to travel to Malaysia and earn points were scotched at the 11th hour by the onset of coronavirus. Hastily re-scheduling, he travelled instead to America a few days later where his tournament in Georgia was cancelled after the first day.

Getting home under his own steam became a sizeable issue as he explained: “Simply to switch the existing flight would have cost over £3,000 due to the sudden demand of people trying to get home.

“It was cheaper to buy a fresh ticket and pay £1,300 to return from Atlanta which is one of America’s busiest airports with four or five flights back to Britain every day.

“That money should be covered by the LTA insurance, but it hasn’t come through yet.

“I had to organise it all on my own.”

Funding also becomes a massive issue with the cancellation of prestigious summer tournaments such as Queen’s, where potential rich sources of income would have been up for grabs.

Whenever tournaments re-commence after the pandemic, there is bound to be a training issue as Bailey warned: “You can’t just go into events without proper preparation and obviously all of this has affected my training.

“If you did that you would risk injury or creating sub-standards which would be ridiculous if people were playing or defending ranking points.

“At the moment we don’t know what is happening."