News
  • Login
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Worklife
  • Travel
  • Reel
  • Future
  • More
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
No Result
View All Result

NEWS

3 °c
London
8 ° Wed
9 ° Thu
11 ° Fri
13 ° Sat
  • Home
  • Video
  • World
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • US & Canada

    The small Australian towns in shock after Erin Patterson mushroom murders

    Bee attack leaves three in critical condition and dozens injured in Aurillac, France

    South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa opposes ‘unilateral’ move

    Chef’s food decoration at Chinese pre-school poisons 233 children

    Greece heatwave closes the Acropolis temporarily

    Baby stolen during Argentina’s military rule found after 48 years

    Israel defence minister plans to move Gaza’s population to camp

    Trump upbeat on Gaza ceasefire despite lack of breakthrough

    Police officer who shot Aboriginal teen was ‘racist’, inquest finds

  • UK
    • All
    • England
    • N. Ireland
    • Politics
    • Scotland
    • Wales

    Man shot by police making warrant arrest in Hollingbourne

    Euro 2025: Wales team bus involved in road traffic incident

    Watch: Reid v Gerard at Wimbledon

    Barry Dow chemicals factory to cut 291 jobs

    Police recover explosive device from Armagh house

    Child poverty: Children living in ‘Dickensian’ conditions

    M60 shut in both directions near Stockport with rush hour delays

    London 7/7 attack anniversary marked by memorial service

    Man, 18, dies in hospital and two arrested after Broxburn disturbance

  • Business
    • All
    • Companies
    • Connected World
    • Economy
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Global Trade
    • Technology of Business

    Lifetime ISAs: Why they divide opinion

    Five things we now know about the Horizon IT failure

    How tariffs are shifting global supply chains

    Trump threatens extra 10% tariff on nations that side with Brics

    Bank junction to reopen to black cabs as a trial

    How to get one when you have zero work experience

    US debt is now $37tn – should we be worried?

    ‘Food demand in Cumbria is unprecedented’

    Your banknote redesign ideas – from British Bulldogs to Basil Fawlty

  • Tech
  • Entertainment & Arts

    Dancers say Lizzo ‘needs to be held accountable’ over harassment claims

    Freddie Mercury: Contents of former home being sold at auction

    Harry Potter and the Cursed Child marks seven years in West End

    Sinéad O’Connor: In her own words

    Tom Jones: Neighbour surprised to find singer in flat below

    BBC presenter: What is the evidence?

    Watch: The latest on BBC presenter story… in under a minute

    Watch: George Alagiah’s extraordinary career

    BBC News presenter pays tribute to ‘much loved’ colleague George Alagiah

    Excited filmgoers: 'Barbie is everything'

  • Science
  • Health
  • In Pictures
  • Reality Check
  • Have your say
  • More
    • Newsbeat
    • Long Reads

NEWS

No Result
View All Result
Home World Australia

Hot wheels – how wheelchair tennis became a Grand Slam draw

January 25, 2024
in Australia
3 min read
247 5
0
491
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


In 2005, Mistry and Ammerlaan won the inaugural wheelchair competition at Wimbledon, for which they earned £1,300 each. Fast forward to 2023 and the wheelchair doubles champions at the All England Club, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, picked up £13,000 each.

Mistry says he would not change a thing about his career, during which he travelled the world and made life-long friendships. Those times may not have been flush with cash, but they were rich in experience – including a locker-room chat with Agassi before a US Open final.

“When you entered a tournament in those days you’d pay an entry fee, say £200, and that would include accommodation, food, entry into the tournament,” Mistry, a four-time Paralympian who won 68 titles and who was a top-10 player in singles or doubles for over 12 years, remembers.

“I was playing the French Open once and sharing with a French guy. I didn’t know him, they just put us in a room. His snoring was so bad that I actually had to take my pillow and my duvet and sleep in the hallway.

“Today everyone’s got individual rooms, they’ve got their coaches with them, they’re flying first class. It’s a different world. I think in an average year, even towards the end of my career, I was probably earning £20,000 for the year and I would have done 20 tournaments.”

When it was announced in August 2001 that the following year’s Australian Open would feature a wheelchair competition, Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard said: “This new initiative gives us a chance to continue to grow the sport by showcasing the world’s best.”

Staging the wheelchair game in the same time and space as a Grand Slam changed perceptions, integrating wheelchair tennis into the non-disabled game in a way that is, as Mistry puts it, “built in, not bolted on”.

He adds: “It’s not only it being at the Grand Slams which gives it a sort of credibility, but the exposure of being part of the event too.

“It adds a great deal towards the inclusive nature that wheelchair tennis brings.”

The exposure has helped the likes of Alcott, all-conquering Dutch legend Esther Vergeer, and Mistry’s compatriot and eight-time Grand Slam singles champion Hewett – who was on the shortlist for the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year – become genuine stars.

These days it is common for a wheelchair event to run within an ATP or WTA event – the prestigious Queen’s Club tournament in London is among those to stage one – and this trend looks set to continue.

Vergeer, who runs a tournament in Rotterdam, told the ITF in 2020:, external “The regular standalone wheelchair tennis tournaments need to exist and they are very, very important for the development and the growth of the sport.

“But to raise the profile of wheelchair tennis and getting it seen by more and more public I think it is important that we are integrating more and more tournaments throughout the year.”

Combining with the non-disabled game has helped wheelchair tennis’ continued growth. By last year, the Wheelchair Tennis Tour, which began in 1992 with a handful of events, had expanded to a circuit of 169 tournaments in 40 countries.

The tour encompasses seven tiers, as well as a junior series. Its popularity is also booming.



Source link

Tags: drawGrandhotslamtennisWheelchairwheels

Related Posts

The small Australian towns in shock after Erin Patterson mushroom murders

July 8, 2025
0

Katy Watsonin Morwell, AustraliaWatch: Australia’s mushroom murder case... in under two minutesThe winters in Victoria's Gippsland region are known...

Police officer who shot Aboriginal teen was ‘racist’, inquest finds

July 7, 2025
0

The police officer who killed Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker in 2019 was "racist" and had an "attraction" to adrenaline-style...

Australian ‘fiasco’ ferry leaves Edinburgh for Tasmania

July 6, 2025
0

AlamySpirit of Tasmania IV completed sea trials in the North Sea in JuneAn Australian ferry forced to dock for...

  • Ballyjamesduff: Man dies after hit-and-run in County Cavan

    510 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 128
  • Somalia: Rare access to its US-funded 'lightning commando brigade

    508 shares
    Share 203 Tweet 127
  • Uganda arrest over deadly New Year Freedom City mall crush

    507 shares
    Share 203 Tweet 127
  • George Weah: Hopes for Liberian football revival with legend as President

    506 shares
    Share 202 Tweet 127
  • Google faces new multi-billion advertising lawsuit

    506 shares
    Share 202 Tweet 127
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

Ballyjamesduff: Man dies after hit-and-run in County Cavan

August 19, 2022

Somalia: Rare access to its US-funded 'lightning commando brigade

November 23, 2022

Uganda arrest over deadly New Year Freedom City mall crush

January 3, 2023

Stranger Things actor Jamie Campbell Bower praised for addiction post

0

NHS to close Tavistock child gender identity clinic

0

Cold sores traced back to kissing in Bronze Age by Cambridge research

0

Man shot by police making warrant arrest in Hollingbourne

July 8, 2025

Lifetime ISAs: Why they divide opinion

July 8, 2025

Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

July 8, 2025

Categories

England

Man shot by police making warrant arrest in Hollingbourne

July 8, 2025
0

Nathan BevanBBC News, South EastPhil HarrisonBBC News, HollingbourneUKNIPAn explosive ordnance disposal team has also been at the sceneA man...

Read more

Lifetime ISAs: Why they divide opinion

July 8, 2025
News

Copyright © 2020 JBC News Powered by JOOJ.us

Explore the JBC

  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Worklife
  • Travel
  • Reel
  • Future
  • More

Follow Us

  • Home Main
  • Video
  • World
  • Top News
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Tech
  • UK
  • In Pictures
  • Health
  • Reality Check
  • Science
  • Entertainment & Arts
  • Login

Copyright © 2020 JBC News Powered by JOOJ.us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
News
More Sites

    MORE

  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Worklife
  • Travel
  • Reel
  • Future
  • More
  • News

    JBC News