There cannot be many athletes at these Games who have taken a 10-year sabbatical away from their sport, during which they have partied fairly hard, returned and ended up winning a Paralympics gold medal, but the Australian Heath Davidson is just such a lucky man.

"I didn't love the sport anymore," he explained. "I was sick of hitting tennis balls to be honest with you."

When he and his partner Dylan Alcott lost the first set of the quad doubles final to three-time champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner, of the United States, on Tuesday, one feared Davidson's story might not have quite the fairy tale finish he had in mind, but the Australians kept believing in the brand of tennis that they think has set them apart in these Games and they came back to win 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Davidson fell back in love with the sport after watching Wimbledon three years ago on television while in bed with his fiance who asked him why he gave up the sport. He can't have come up with a very good reason because he was texting his old coach the next day and asking if he could have a hit.

By the end of the week he was back in the old routine hitting tennis balls and before he knew it back in love with the sport; in fact loving the sport probably for the very first time. It was thanks to his good friend Alcott that he got to play here in the quad doubles because his ranking wasn't good enough, but he has made the most of his wild card, also advancing one round in the singles.

"Back then I didn't really enjoy playing," said Davidson, who quit at 18 after eight years in the sport when Alcott chose to take up basketball. "I was okay so I did it. Now I'm here because I want to be here. I obviously made the right decision because I'm at my first Paralympics and I'm playing for a gold medal in the doubles so...

"At 18 you want to go out and drink and party and all that with your mates. I went off the rails a little bit but we'll keep that for another day. I was playing tennis while my mates were growing up. I wanted to enjoy life but in enjoying life I guess I made some wrong decisions.

"I had a rough time for a while but turned my life around. There were a lot of people and things that I had to change, which I did. I guess with hindsight, if I'd stuck with it, I'd have been a hell of a lot better than I am now, but I don't regret having a break because I needed the break to fall in love with it.

"There are three things I love in this world - family and friends, my beautiful fiance and tennis.

"I love touring, I love being here. It's given me a lot of opportunities I probably wouldn't have had otherwise and I get to hang around with one of my best mates and play tennis.

"I think the thing we've got over everyone else is that me and Dylan are mates so regardless if we're hitting on a Saturday afternoon in Melbourne or hitting here we're still mates, we're still doing the same thing at home as we would here.

"And I think that helps with pressure. We know how to calm each other down and pump each other up. I don't want to do it with anyone else."

Davidson, 29, has been in a wheelchair most of his life, having been diagnosed at five months old with transverse myelitis, an illness which affects the spinal cord.

"I've known no different, which is fine with me," he said. "I've always said I would hate to be able to kick a football and that to be taken away from me. I enjoy my life. I've done everything anyone else could possibly do and probably more.

"I can tell you now none of my mates have been to the Paralympics or the Olympics so I've got that over them."