Lleyton Hewitt, Jon Curren, Simba from The Lion King
Career Highlights
World Team Cups in Brazil and Sweden
Greatest Moment
Competing at the Beijing Games as part of the Australian team
Bio
Michael Dobbie describes the Beijing Paralympic Games as the best experience of his life. The competition aside, he believes walking out in the Opening Ceremony made the last four years training worth it and taking part in the Closing Ceremony inspired him to continue playing tennis until the next Games in London.
Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008
Heroes
Anyone who is prepared to have a crack at something
Career Highlights
Winning the 1999 World Teams Cup
Greatest Moment
Being a spectator at the Beijing Paralympics
Bio
Champion wheelchair tennis player Daniela Di Toro continues to dominate the sport in Australia and will be one of the seasoned veterans on the team, having competed at four Paralympic Games.
When she was 14, a wall collapsed on her at a school swimming carnival, resulting in paraplegia. While in rehabilitation, she met wheelchair basketball player Sandy Blythe. Sandy was a rehabilitation worker at the unit and inspired Daniela to continue with sport.
4th 2004 World Team Cup, 2nd 2002 Junior World Team Cup
Bio
When he was just 13, a blood clot was discovered in Ben Weekes’ spine which led to Ben becoming a paraplegic. He became involved in wheelchair sport and has since never looked back, taking a particular liking to wheelchair tennis.
His proudest moment was representing his country at the 2004 Athens Games. Also in 2004, he finished fourth at the World Team Cup in Italy and in 2002 came second at the Junior World Team Cup. At his second Paralympics, Ben performed well but was knocked out in the second round of play.
Wheelchair tennis appeared for the first time on the Paralympic Program in Barcelona in 1992. The game follows able-bodied tennis rules and athletes must have high levels of skill, fitness and strategy.
Events/Disciplines
Singles
Doubles
Classification
The eligibility requirement for men's and women's events is a permanent substantial or total loss of function in one or both legs due to conditions such as spinal injury, ankylosis, amputation or other lower limb disability.
For the quadriplegic division the eligibility criteria requires a player have a disability in three or more limbs.
View a more detailed explanation of wheelchair tennis classification.
A ball is made of two elastic hemispheres joined together and covered by a layer of wool and synthetic threads. Its colour must be yellow or white.
Racket
The first tennis rackets were wooden and strings were made of ship or ewe bowels. Tennis rackets today are made of technologically advanced material such as graphite with strings made of synthetic threads. Wheelchair tennis athletes may have a special strap wound around their hand to help them hold the racket.
Wheelchair
A tennis wheelchair is lighter than usual. Speed and chair manoeuvrability are very important for wheelchair tennis and the chairs are constantly improved to meet these criteria.
Court
The court is a 23.77m x 8.23m rectangle for singles and a 23.77m x 10.97m rectangle for doubles. The same court can be marked for both singles and doubles. The court is divided into two halves by a net, which extends at a height of 0.914m at its centre and 1.07m at its sides. There are four types of courts – clay, grass, hard and carpet.
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