 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 20 September 1984 |
| Website | www |
| Sport | |
| Country |  Australia |
| Sport | Wheelchair tennis |
Ben Weekes (born 20 September 1984) is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. He represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his fifth Games. [1]
Weekes was born on 20 September 1984 in Strathfield, New South Wales. [2] [3] He has an identical twin brother, and two other brothers. [2] He is an incomplete paraplegic as a result of a blood clot forming in his spine when he was thirteen years old. [2] [4] He is a composer and pianist, having received formal training in this area. [2] [4] His music has been recorded and he has played at the BarMe Cabaret Bar, Angel Place and the Sydney Opera House. [2] [4]
Other sports he participates in are swimming and basketball. [2]
Weekes is a wheelchair tennis player. [2] [5] When playing, he follows the same rules as his non-disabled counterparts except the ball is allowed to bounce twice. [6] [7] He became interested in the sport after watching David Hall play it at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, [2] [4] and would go on to practice regularly with Hall, until Hall retired from the sport in 2006. [4] He has been coached by Kathy Fahim. [4]
Weekes first represented Australia in 2002. [2] That year, he competed in the Junior World Cup where he finished second. [2] At the 2004 World Cup, his team finished second. [2] He competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. He won his first-round match, [2] and was knocked out in the second round. [2] [3]
Weekes competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, playing doubles with Michael Dobbie. [2] [3] [5] Going into the 2008 Games, he practised twice a day on court, six times a week. [4] In 2008, Weekes played some doubles matches with Adam Kellerman. [8]
At the 2011 South African Open, he made the finals. [2] At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, he made the second round of the men's singles and he teamed with Adam Kellerman in the men's doubles. They lost in the first round. [9] [3] [6] [8] In the doubles event, he is due to be partnered by Adam Kellerman. [7] [8]
At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Weekes lost to Stefan Olsson (SWE) 0-2 (0–6, 3–6) in the round of 32 in the Men's Singles and with Adam Kellerman lost in the round of 16 in the Men's Doubles. [10]
At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Weekes lost in the Round of 32 in the Men's Singles and Doubles.
Esther Mary Vergeer is a Dutch former professional wheelchair tennis player. Vergeer won 42 major titles, 23 year-end championships, and seven Paralympic gold medals. She was the world No. 1 in women's wheelchair singles from 1999 to her retirement in February 2013. Vergeer went undefeated in singles for ten straight years, ending her career on a winning streak of 470 matches. She has often been named the most dominant player in professional sports.
Peter Robert Norfolk OBE is a British wheelchair tennis player. Following a motorbike accident which left him paraplegic, he uses a wheelchair. He took up tennis and following a further spinal complication in 2000, he began competing in the quad division. He is nicknamed The Quadfather.
Dylan Martin Alcott, is an Australian former wheelchair tennis player, former wheelchair basketball player, radio host and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, known colloquially as the Australian "Rollers". At the age of 17, he became the youngest Rollers gold medal winner, at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and was the youngest to compete in the wheelchair basketball competition. In 2014, he returned to wheelchair tennis with the aim of participating at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, at which he won gold medals in the Men's Quad Singles and Doubles. He was named the 2016 Australian Paralympian of the Year due to his outstanding achievements at Rio.
David Wagner is an American wheelchair tennis player. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down and with thirty percent function in his hands, he competes in the quad division. He plays by taping the tennis racket to his hand. He is currently ranked number three in the world in singles and number two in doubles.
Stéphane Houdet is a French wheelchair tennis player. Houdet is a former singles and doubles world number one. In 2014, he became the first man in history to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam in men's wheelchair doubles.
Lisa Daniela "Danni" Di Toro is an Australian wheelchair tennis and para table tennis player. Di Toro was the 2010 French Open doubles champion and has also been the Masters double champion. In singles, Di Toro is the former world number one and two time masters finalist. In 2015, she moved to para-table tennis and represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, where she was team captain with Kurt Fearnley. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, her sixth Paralympics, she was the team captain and Opening Ceremony flag bearer with Ryley Batt.
Jiske Griffioen is a Dutch professional wheelchair tennis player. Griffioen is a 20-time major champion, Paralympic gold medalist, seven-time Masters champion, and a former world No. 1. Alongside Aniek van Koot, Griffioen completed the Grand Slam in doubles in 2013. In singles, Griffioen is a three-time Masters champion, Paralympic gold medalist, four-time major champion, and a former world No. 1.
Maikel Scheffers is a Dutch wheelchair tennis player. He plays singles and doubles events. Scheffers was born with spina bifida. He lives in Dorst.
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Melissa Tapper is an Australian table tennis player. After competing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in elite non-Paralympic competition. In March 2016, she became the first Australian athlete to qualify for both the Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics.
Adam Kellerman is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. When he was thirteen years old, he was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Ewing sarcoma. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the men's singles and doubles wheelchair tennis events. As of 21 July 2016, he is ranked Number 1 in Australia and Number 11 in the World for Men's Single Wheelchair Tennis. He competed for Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Wheelchair tennis first entered the Summer Paralympic Games in 1988 as a demonstration sport and as a full medal sport at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Australia has competed at every Paralympic wheelchair tennis competition. There are two categories of medals - open division and quad division.
Jordanne Joyce Whiley MBE is a British retired wheelchair tennis player. Aged 14, she became Britain's youngest ever national women's singles champion in wheelchair tennis. She has osteogenesis imperfecta as does her father, Keith, who was also a Paralympian and won a bronze medal in 1984 in New York. As well as the 2015 US Open in wheelchair singles, Whiley has won 9 Grand Slam doubles titles, and she & Japanese Yui Kamiji are the fourth team in women's wheelchair doubles to complete the Calendar Year Grand Slam. Whiley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2015 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to wheelchair tennis.
Andrew David Lapthorne is a British wheelchair tennis player. He took up wheelchair tennis in 2005, and entered the quad division in 2008. He is active in both singles and doubles tournaments, and has 17 grand slam titles in singles and doubles. He competed at his first Summer Paralympics at London 2012 in the quad singles and in the quad doubles, in which he won a silver medal and is now a three-time Paralympic medallist and British no.1 Quad tennis player, who started playing wheelchair tennis at the age of ten.
Gordon James Reid is a British professional wheelchair tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles. He is a Paralympic gold, silver, and bronze medalist, two-time Grand Slam singles champion, and twenty-three time Grand Slam doubles champion.
Francesc Tur Blanch is a wheelchair tennis player from Spain. He has competed in the men's single and doubles events representing Spain at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics. His top international singles world ranking was 19th, a rank he held in August 2010.
Yui Kamiji is a Japanese professional wheelchair tennis player. She has won 28 major titles, as well as a Paralympic silver and bronze medal in singles and doubles, respectively, at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She also won a bronze medal in singles at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Heath Arthur Davidson, is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. Davidson is a four-time Australian Open doubles champion, all partnering Dylan Alcott. He has also won two Paralympic medals, a gold and silver in doubles at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, respectively.
Diede de Groot is a Dutch professional wheelchair tennis player who is the current world No. 1 in both singles and doubles.
Joachim Gérard is a Belgian wheelchair tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 in singles.
