The 24-year-old, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at London 2012 and missed the able-bodied Olympic team for those Games by just one spot, claimed the berth on the national women's team at the trials held on the Gold Coast.

"I always thought it was possible," Tapper said.

"It's been my dream ever since I started playing, I always wanted to make a Commonwealth or Olympic Games team.

"When I'm older, maybe I will look back and realise what I have done, but I'm just a kid playing ping pong and really enjoying it at the moment and looking to get the best out of myself.

"I'm really just like anyone else."

Tapper was born with Erb's Palsy which led to brachial plexus nerve damage in her right arm and, although she has some difficulty serving as well as frequent back and shoulder injuries, she said it has never stopped her from doing what she wanted to do - playing table tennis.

"Being a one-hand dominant sport, it took my fancy pretty quickly, and I was all right at it," she explained.

Tapper will head to the Scottish city for the Commonwealth Games, which is due to take place from July 23 to August 3, alongside women's team-mates Vivian Dederko, Jian Fang Lay, Sally Zhang and Miao Miao.

Australia has won eight medals in table tennis since the sport was introduced onto the Commonwealth Games programme in Manchester in 2002.

The country will be hoping to move that tally into double figures at Glasgow 2014, as well as securing the elusive gold medal.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
November 2013: Australia take triple gold to dominate Oceania Para-table tennis Championships
April 2012: Table tennis stars Melissa Tapper and Rebecca McDonnell selected for London 2012