Wheelchair tennis

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Wimbledon - Men’s Wheelchair doubles

Wheelchair tennis is a sport that is played on a regulation tennis court, by people using specially designed wheelchairs. All pedestrian variations of tennis are, played, i.e. same-sex, doubles, mixed etc.

The only rule that differs from pedestrian tennis is the one that concerns the number of bounces a ball may take before it must be played. In wheelchair tennis the ball may bounce up to twice, the second bounce may also occur outside of the field. This also holds true for serves.

[edit] History

On 17 January 1976, 18-year-old Brad Parks was injured while taking his first warm up jump in a local acrobatic skiing competition. The accident left him a paraplegic and he realised that he would be a wheelchair user from then on. Having always been a competitive sportsman he started to wonder what sports would be available to him as a wheelchair user.

Whilst in rehabilitation, he came across an article about Jeff Minnenbraker, an athlete from Los Angeles who had been playing tennis in a wheelchair using a chair he had built out of square tubing.

In May 1976, whilst on holiday with his parents, he experimented with playing tennis from his wheelchair. This led him to start thinking about where the sport could go from there.

Shortly after this, during a routine check-up at hospital, Brad found that the new recreation therapist was Jeff Minnenbraker. The two started discussing wheelchair tennis and Jeff gave Brad a few lessons, during which, it became apparent that he would need to upgrade his old hospital chair for a sports wheelchair if he was to match Jeff's mobility and develop his tennis further.

During the spring of 1977, Jeff assisted Brad to make his own custom built chair and the two players started to promote wheelchair tennis across the west coast of the USA through a series of camps and exhibitions. The pair were invited to attend Vic Braden's tennis college in Mission Viejo. The experience of these lessons and their time spent on the court convinced them that there should definitely be a two-bounce rule in wheelchair tennis, but that the dimensions of the tennis court should remain the same.

In May 1977, the Los Angeles City Parks and Recreation Department hosted the first ever wheelchair tennis tournament with around 20 players. Brad Parks defeated Dave Kiley in the finals. About this time, Brad became a tennis counsellor at the Big Bear Tennis Camp.

In 1978, Brad entered the University of California, where he studied for two years and practiced regularly with the women's tennis team. It was becoming more apparent that lightweight chairs were the key to the development of the game and the potential inclusion of players with higher-level injuries.

By this time, more wheelchair tennis tournaments were being hosted in California. Parks and Minnenbraker took every opportunity to promote and develop wheelchair tennis through their extensive programme of camps, clinics and exhibitions. Brad continued competing as a wheelchair racer, often doing tennis exhibitions once the race was complete.

In December 1979 a wheelchair tennis clinic was held at the Racquet Club of Irvine attracting 35 wheelchair tennis players. Brad Parks and David Saltz met to discuss the formation of a national governing body for wheelchair tennis.

Doug MacCurdy, who was working as a consultant for both the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) met Brad and ended up assisting with some wheelchair tennis clinics. He was so impressed by the dedication and skill of the players that he continued to follow the progress of the sport closely over the following years.

In early 1980, the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis (NFWT) was formed with Brad Parks, David Saltz, Jim Worth and Dave Kiley as the first Board of Directors.

The purpose of the NFWT was "to educate, promote, foster and encourage the development of the sport of wheelchair tennis." This was accomplished through clinics, exhibitions and competitive tournaments and sports camps throughout the USA and the world.

In March during a state-wide tour, Parks, Worth and Saltz met John Newcombe, Fred Stolle and Charlie Pasarell and were invited to play exhibition matches in Australia later that year, and Graeme Watts started the first wheelchair tennis programme in Sydney, Australia shortly thereafter. A circuit of ten tournaments was established across the USA including the first ever US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships which attracted over 70 players. Brad Parks took the inaugural title. By the end of 1980, over 300 players were actively playing wheelchair tennis in the USA.

In 1981 the Wheelchair Tennis Players Association (WTPA) was formed, so that the ever-increasing number of players would have an active role in governing the sport of wheelchair tennis.

The WTPA was formed to:

a) Foster competitive wheelchair tennis for the physically disabled throughout the world;
b) Establish and enforce rules which create fair and equitable play for all participants;
c) Organise a competitive network of tournaments sanctioned by the association; and
d) Formulate a uniform system throughout the world.

The first "Grand Prix Circuit" was established in 1981 consisting of a series of four major events in different cities across the USA, culminating in the US Open in October.

Also in 1981, the first NFWT Junior Sports Camp was staged and attracted 30 participants from the local area. Brad Parks wrote the first instructional booklet on wheelchair tennis entitled "Tennis in a Wheelchair" around this time. This publication was republished in 1985 and again in 1987 and 1991 by the USTA.

Later the same year, Jean-Pierre Limborg of France visited the USA in search of a lightweight wheelchair from Minnenbraker's factory. He had never played wheelchair tennis before but Minnenbraker invited him to compete in a tournament in Las Vegas. By the end of the event he was so impressed he decided to stay in California for four months, competing in six tournaments and becoming the first international competitor to participate in the US Open.

Upon his return home, Limborg joined forces with his former tennis teacher Pierre Fusade, who had tried wheelchair tennis while he had been in rehabilitation after his accident in 1979 and the pair set about starting a programme to develop wheelchair tennis in Europe. The first wheelchair tennis club opened in Garches later that year. Pierre Fusade sent a questionnaire to all the disabled sports clubs across France and found that 80 players were potentially interested in starting to play. A series of four tournaments were initiated around the nation and considerable promotion was done to spread the word about wheelchair tennis in Europe. Popular French professional players such as Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte assisted with up-down exhibitions where a wheelchair tennis player teamed up with an able-bodied partner.

By 1983, players from other European nations were starting to hear about wheelchair tennis, and the first international tournament was staged in Paris called the "Open d'Antony". Among the competitors was Dutch teenager Chantal Vandierendonck, who had been a very talented national tennis player before a car accident had left her paraplegic earlier that year. She had heard about wheelchair tennis from her Belgian uncle who had seen the French players on television.

By 1983, the Grand Prix Circuit in the USA had grown to seven nationally sanctioned events, and the US Open.

Meanwhile the US based company, Everest & Jennings became a major sponsor of the NFWT. The expanding circuit in the USA now included ten events and became known as the Everest & Jennings Grand Prix Circuit.

In 1984 Brad was also honoured on the "This is Your Life" television programme in the USA.

Masahiro Sato started the first wheelchair tennis programme in Japan, beginning by translating "Tennis in a Wheelchair" into Japanese.

A wheelchair tennis demonstration event was staged at Stoke Mandeville for the first time.

An international team competition, the World Team Cup, was established in 1985, with six men's teams competing in the inaugural event. It was played in a similar format to the able-bodied Davis Cup and held on the weekend prior to the US Open.

The first Japan Open, which took place in Fukuoka, was also held that year.

The European Wheelchair Tennis Federation (EWTF) was formed and set about establishing a set of minimum standards and a network of tournaments in Europe. France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Israel were members and the first European ranking list was produced later the same year. This laid the basis for the success of the future of European wheelchair tennis players.

By 1986, the Everest & Jennings Grand Prix Circuit had expanded to include 55 events with over 2000 players participating. The first Junior National Championships at the US Open attracted 60 players in four divisions.

The first official French Open was staged in Antony, Paris and the number of both players and tournaments in Europe was rapidly increasing. The 1980s saw the beginning of the rise of wheelchair tennis in Europe.

As a result of promotional work and wheelchair tennis demonstrations by Brian Locke of Great Britain and John Noakes of the Netherlands, wheelchair tennis was officially included in the wheelchair games at Stoke Mandeville for the first time with 30 men and seven women representing ten nations. This led the way to wheelchair tennis being accepted into the Paralympic Games.

It had been a goal Paralympic sport since the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, but it wasn't until 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona that wheelchair tennis acquired the status of a full-fledged competition.

On Monday 10 October 1988, the International Wheelchair Tennis Federation (IWTF) was founded at a meeting during the US Open in Irvine, California with Eve Kraft of the USTA in attendance on behalf of the ITF to give the newly formed Federation their blessing and support. The following delegates were elected as Executive Officers:

Brad Parks (USA) - President
Sasson Aharoni (ISR) - Vice President
Graeme Watts (AUS) - Secretary
John Noakes (NED) - Treasurer

Membership was accorded to eight countries - Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Israel, Japan and the USA.

The 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney boosted public awareness immensely. Some of the most thrilling action of all the Paralympic Games could be seen especially in the last two rounds of the men's tournament where local hero David Hall beat Kai Schrameyer of Germany in the semifinal and went on to win the final against Texan Steve Welch.

In the ITF men's rankings of November, 2006, Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands ranks first. The strongest woman is Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands who has not lost a match since February 2003, including 71 tournament victories.