Wheelchair Tennis

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Wheelchair Tennis

Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber Tennis ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's tennis court....
adapted for those have disabilities in their lower bodies. The size of courts, balls, and rackets are same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis; they use specially designed wheelchair

Wheelchair

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Encyclopedia

Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis

Tennis

Wheelchair

A wheelchair is a wheeled mobility device in which the user sits. The device is propelled either manually or via various automated systems. Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to illness , injury, or disability....
s and the ball may bounce up to twice. The second bounce may also occur outside of the field.

This is one of the official Paralympic sports and also played at Grand Slam

Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, and public attention....
s. There are three categories; Men, Ladies, and Quads and each category has singles and doubles tournaments. Quads is the category for those with quadriplegia

Quadriplegia

Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is a symptom in which a human experiences paralysis affecting all four limbs, although not necessarily total paralysis or loss of function....
and it is sometimes called Mixed especially at Paralympic Games. Quads players can hold rackets taped to the hand and use electric-powered wheelchairs.

History

Wheelchair tennis got started in 1976 thanks to the efforts of Brad Parks who is effectively the creator of competitive wheelchair tennis. Since then, a lot of effort has been put into the promotion of the sport in order to get rid of the therapy image that still clings to many sports for people with disabilities today.

The sport became popular and grew worldwide so fast and it was introduced to Paralympic games

Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games are a Paralympic sports for athletes with physical and visual disabilities. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy....
for the first time at the 1988 Summer Paralympics

1988 Summer Paralympics

The 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first Paralympics in 24 years that were held concurrently with the 1988 Summer Olympics. They took place in Seoul, South Korea....
in Seoul

Seoul

Seoul is the Capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, It is one of the world's List of cities proper by population.The Seoul National Capital Area - which includes the major port city of Incheon and satellite towns in Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million inhabitants and is the world's second largest List of me...
as a demonstration event. It was 1992 Summer Paralympics

1992 Summer Paralympics

The 1992 Summer Paralympics were the ninth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Barcelona, Spain....
in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous communities of Spain of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008, while the population of the Metropolitan Area was 3,161,081....
that wheelchair tennis acquired the status of a full-fledged competition. The 2000 Summer Paralympics

2000 Summer Paralympics

136 Countries participated on the 2000 Paralympics. Many of the same venues of the Sydney Olympics were used, including the Olympic Stadium, Stadium Australia....
in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million . It is the List of Australian capital cities of New South Wales, and was the site of the first British Empire colony in Australia....
have boosted public awareness immensely and it led to introduce this sport to Grand Slams of pedestrian tennis.

Major Tournaments

International tournaments are organized by International Tennis Federation

International Tennis Federation

The International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913....
as a NEC

NEC

is a Japan multinational corporation IT company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
Wheelchair Tennis Tour. In wheelchair tennis there are four top-ranked major tournaments called Super Series (SS); Australian Open (Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
), British Open (Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is one of the three major city status in the United Kingdom in the East Midlands and is in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England....
), Japan Open (Iizuka

Iizuka, Fukuoka

is a cities of Japan located at the confluence of the Honami, Fukuoka and Onga rivers in central Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.Iizuka was an important post-station on the Nagasaki, Nagasaki Kaido during the Edo Era....
), and US Open (San Diego). World Team Cup is an international team event held annually. To wrap up the season, they have NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters (singles event) and Camozzi Doubles Masters tournaments which only world top-ranked players can compete. In addition, Grand Slams, Australian Open

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. The tournament is held each January at Melbourne Park....
, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered the most prestigious....
, Roland Garros, and US Open have each created wheelchair tennis category. It is also played at Paralympic Games and FESPIC games as well.

The Netherlands has dominated numerous victories at major tournaments including Paralympic Games and Grand Slams. It has many top players of this sport such as Robin Ammerlaan

Robin Ammerlaan

Robin Ammerlaan is a professional, former world number one in singles and doubles, wheelchair tennis player from the Netherlands. Ammerlaan is also champion of many grand slam titles since 2000....
and Esther Vergeer

Esther Vergeer

Esther Vergeer is a Netherlands former wheelchair basketball and current wheelchair tennis player. She is five-fold Paralympics tennis champion, eleven-fold consecutive world-champion , and has been the world's top ranked player since 1999....
.

Wheelchair Tennis

History

Major Tournaments

External links