Wheelchair Tennis

Events & Disciplines

• Men’s singles
• Men’s doubles
• Women’s singles
• Women’s doubles
• Quad singles
• Quad doubles

Classification

Who is eligible for Wheelchair Tennis? Athletes with a physical impairment, who have significant or total loss of function in one or both legs due to conditions such as spinal or nerve injury, limb loss or limb deficiency, cerebral palsy or other lower limb impairment.

What are the classes? Athletes are classified into the Open or Quad divisions depending on their functional ability.

How do I get a classification? Request a classification using the Get classified form.

Rules & Equipment

Ball

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.

Medal History