From June 27th to July 10th The Wimbledon Championships, one of the four 'Grand Slam' tennis tournaments of the year, took place at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England. They have held tournaments for gentlemen and ladies in both singles and doubles formats since 1913. Wimbledon is the only 'Grand Slam' tournament that is currently played on grass (the Australian Open and US Open are played on hard courts while the French Open is played on clay). But what I found interesting wasn't the tournaments where Andy Murray and Serena Williams took home the trophies. I found the athletes in wheelchairs much more exciting, and that is exactly what Wimbledon gave us this year with Wheelchair Tennis.
Wheelchair Tennis is an adaptive sport, but it is more similar to its able bodied counterpart than many other adaptive sports. This makes it equally as exciting as the craziest shots Roger Federer has ever made. In fact, there is only one major rule difference in that the ball can bounce twice before being hit rather than just once. Other than that, the game is almost identical, with similar serves, powerful hits and just as much amazing agility by the players to get across the court. The fact that they're in wheelchairs makes it even more amazing because they are doing the same work with only their arms pushing them (and their arms need to be used to hit the ball too!).
Wimbledon has hosted Wheelchair Doubles since 2006. They held off on including Wheelchair Singles because of the slick grass and higher speeds, but after ten years of successful Wheelchair Doubles tournaments for both ladies and gentlemen, Wheelchair Singles were announced for 2016.
The Wheelchair Tennis events took place from Thursday July 7 to Sunday July 10. Eight men were selected to play for the Gentleman's Wheelchair Singles tournament: Gordon Reid, Stefan Olsson, Stephane Houdet, Maikel Scheffers, Gustavo Fernandez, Nicolas Peifer, Alfie Hewett and Joachim Gerard.
In the end of the three round tournament, Gordon Reid defeated Stefan Olsson in straight sets to take the title.
On the Ladies' side, eight athletes were selected for singles as well: Jiske Griffioen, Sabine Ellerbrock, Louise Hunt, Marjolein Buis, Jordanne Whiley, Lucy Shuker, Aniek Van Koot and Yui Kamiji. It was an all Netherlands final with Jiske Griffioen facing off against Aniek Van Koot. After losing the first set in the final 4 - 6, Griffioen was dominant in the next two sets to win the tournament.
The Wheelchair Doubles finals took place as well with the Gentleman facing off on July 9th. Gordon Reid took home another trophy (this one actually came first) along with Alfie Hewett, defeating Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in a third set tiebreaker.
Finally on July 10th, Yui Kamiji and Jordanne Whiley defeated both of the Singles finalists, Jiske Griffioen and Aniek Van Koot, in two sets.
Although Wimbledon isn't the first major tennis tournament to host Wheelchair Singles (it's actually the last of the four 'Grand Slams') it is groundbreaking since it is the first played on grass. It was one of the biggest stages in all of tennis and the sport of Wheelchair Tennis will certainly enjoy wider recognition with the addition of this tournament each year.
