International game
The LTA and Getty Images are proud to celebrate 50 years of wheelchair tennis, with a digital exhibition of 50 images - some published for the first time, selected with the help of key figures from the wheelchair tennis community.
An international sport since the mid-1980s, the elite of wheelchair tennis come from countries around the world. This gallery showcases global game changers throughout the years in wheelchair tennis.
David Hall serves during his Sydney 2000 Paralympic men’s singles final against American Stephen Welch – Credit: Nick Wilson/ALLSPORT
Wheelchair tennis had not witnessed a crowd like it for a Paralympic final until Australian, David Hall, went head-to-head with American Stephen Welch in the men’s singles gold medal match in Sydney in October 2000.
One of the most celebrated men’s players of all time, Hall went on to beat Welch 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 to send a 10,000-strong largely Australian crowd into raptures.
A bronze bust statue of Hall now sits at Melbourne Park, unveiled in 2015 to mark his induction into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame and Hall is also one of seven wheelchair players now inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Legendary American quad doubles partnership Nick Taylor and David Wagner celebrate their third successive Paralympic quad doubles gold medal at London 2012 - Credit: Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images)
Still the most successful quad doubles wheelchair tennis partnership of all time, Nick Taylor and David Wagner won the first three Paralympic quad doubles titles between Athens 2004 and London 2012, denying Britain’s Peter Norfolk and Mark Eccleston as they became the inaugural Paralympic quad doubles champions in Athens.
Now an eight-time Paralympic medallist, Wagner co-holds the record for most Paralympic wheelchair tennis medals with Esther Vergeer, while Taylor remains the only Paralympic quad singles or doubles medallist to have competed in a powerchair.
Esther Vergeer delivers a backhand during her London 2012 Paralympic women’s singles gold medal match against fellow Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot – Credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Undoubtedly the most recognisable female wheelchair tennis player of all time, Esther Vergeer brought her astonishing career to a close at London 2012, winning her fourth successive Paralympic singles gold medal and the 470th successive singles match in her record-breaking unbeaten winning streak that extended back to 30 January 2003.
No one knew it at the time, but Vergeer would not play another competitive match following her London 2012 singles final and she announced her retirement in February 2013, having won seven gold medals and one silver medal across her Paralympic singles and doubles careers.
Unquestionably the greatest men’s wheelchair player of all time, Japan’s Shingo Kunieda hits a forehand on his way to becoming the first player to win successive Paralympic men’s singles gold medals at London 2012 – Credit: Getty Images
There are few superlatives to adequately describe Shingo Kunieda’s greatness as a wheelchair tennis player and how his attacking game helped shape the sport that we know today.
The Beijing 2008 and London 2012 men’s singles champion became the first player to regain a Paralympic singles title when he triumphed on home soil in 2021 after the Games had been postponed for 12 months due to the global pandemic.
Kunieda also became the first men’s wheelchair player to compete the career Golden Slam when he won his one and only Wimbledon singles title in 2022 to claim his 50th career Grand Slam singles title.
Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot keep up the team vibes en route to their 2019 Wimbledon women’s doubles victory - Credit: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
The Tokyo Paralympic champions had won 14 Grand Slam titles together before the start of 2026.
Van Koot is currently the most decorated active women’s wheelchair doubles player and De Groot is the owner of the second longest singles winning streak in wheelchair tennis history, following that of Esther Vergeer.
Dylan Alcott reacts on his way to his second successive Paralympic quad singles title at Tokyo 2020. Alcott completed a historic calendar Golden Slam in 2021 - Credit: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Charismatic former ‘Australian of the Year’ Dylan Alcott is known as much for his media profile in his home country as for his record-breaking exploits on the tennis court.
During his tennis career Alcott won 15 Grand Slam titles. But against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic having caused the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics by a year, Alcott became the first male wheelchair tennis player to win a singles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments and a Paralympic singles gold medal in 2021.
Kgothatso Montjane, the first black South African woman to win a Wimbledon singles match, reaches for a forehand at The Championships in 2023 – Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Known as ‘KG’ among the wheelchair tennis community, Kgothatso Montjane holds a particular place in the history of wheelchair tennis and the tennis evolution of her country.
The first black South African female tennis player to win a singles match at The Championships in 2018, she became the first black South African woman to win a Wimbledon title in 2024, when she partnered Japan’s Yui Kamiji to win one of a current four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles for their partnership.
Montjane is also the first black South African woman to earn a world No.1 wheelchair tennis ranking, doing so in women’s doubles in March 2024.
Yui Kamiji reaches for a backhand at Paris 2024, where she became the first non-Dutch player to win the Paralympic women’s singles title and followed up with doubles gold – Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Up until the Paris 2024 Paralympics, Dutch players had won every women’s singles gold medal and every women’s doubles gold medal in eight Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Events since 1992.
All that was to change spectacularly at Roland Garros in 2024, as Kamiji upset defending champion and long-time rival Diede de Groot just 24 hours after she had partnered compatriot Manami Tanaka to defeat De Groot and Aniek van Koot in the women’s doubles gold medal match.
Kamiji consigned De Groot and Van Koot to the silver and bronze medal positions on the women’s singles podium.
Frenchman Stephane Houdet playing in the final of the men’s wheelchair singles exhibition tournament at the Erste Bank Open in October 2025 - Credit: Christian Bruna/Getty Images
A special effects camera filter was used to create this image, enhancing the sense of speed and power at the top of the wheelchair game.
Considered something of a pioneering figure in wheelchair tennis due to the evolution of his tennis wheelchair designs, Houdet first used a chair of this design in the lead up to the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
A talented junior player on his feet, the former world No.1 and five-time Paralympic medallist became a single-leg amputee in his 30s, in the wake of a motorcycle accident, and his tennis chair design enables him to try and replicate some of the nuances of playing on his feet.
The youngest men’s Grand Slam champion in tennis, the charismatic Tokito Oda whips a forehand on his way to a second Australian Open singles title in January this year - Credit: Kelly Defina/Getty Images
Tokito Oda won his first Grand Slam singles title at Roland Garros in 2003, aged 17 years and 33 days, and then claimed the first of his two Australian Open men’s singles titles some seven months later.
Now a long-time rival of Britain’s Alfie Hewett, Oda and Hewett have won every men’s singles Grand Slam title between them in recent seasons. Oda became the youngest Paralympic men’s singles gold medallist, aged 18, at Paris 2024, when he again met Hewett in the final.
