 Action shot of Pupovac during a match at the 2000 Summer Paralympics | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 February 1972 (age 51) Wollongong, New South Wales | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Branka Pupovac (born 3 February 1972) is a Paralympic wheelchair tennis competitor from Australia.
Pupovac was born on 3 March 1972 in Wollongong, New South Wales. [1] She is from Sydney, New South Wales and attended the University of Wollongong where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce. In 2000, she was studying to become a counsellor. [2] Pupovac is an incomplete paraplegic, as a result of an accident while riding on the back of a friend's motorcycle when she was twenty. Her friend crossed a set of double lines in an effort to overtake a car. She was wearing a helmet at the time, but still had significant damage done to her neck and spinal cord. [2]
Pupovac, alongside Karni Liddell, Hamish MacDonald and Charmaine Dalli, was one of eighteen Australian Paralympians photographed by Emma Hack for a nude calendar. [3] The photograph of her in the calendar features her topless and covered in brown and gold body paint. [3]
Pupovac first competed internationally in wheelchair tennis in 1996. [1] In 1996, she was chosen as a member of the Australian Paralympic's Wheelchair tennis Development Squad. [2] She was later chosen to be a member of Australia's World Team Cup. [2] At the 1997 U.S. Open of Wheelchair Tennis, Branka was swept in straight sets by Chantal Vandierendonck during the first round. Vandierendonck beat her 6–2, and 6–1. [4] In 1998, she was ranked 14th in the world for women's singles and doubles tennis. [2] While preparing for the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she would train up to six days a week. [2] In 1998, she made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. [1] The same year, at the US Open, she won the consolation draw. [1] In 1998, she also made the finals of the British Open consolation draw. [1] In August 1999, she had her highest single's international ranking when she was ranked ninth in the world. [1] In 2000, her competitive sport participation was sponsored by the Motor Accidents Authority in New South Wales. [5] In 2000, she finished second at the Australian Open and French Open in the consolidation draw. [1] She was a 1998 and 2000 Motor Accidents Authority Paralympian. [6] She won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Women's Doubles event, [7] with Daniela Di Toro as her partner. [8] In October 2000, she had her highest doubles international ranking when she was ranked 12th. [1] She competed in her final international competition in 2004, at the World Team Cup in New Zealand. [1]
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.
Lucy Jessica Shuker is a British wheelchair tennis player who is currently the highest ranked woman in the sport in Britain. A previous singles and doubles National Champion, Shuker has represented Great Britain at four successive Paralympic Games, twice winning a bronze medal in the women's doubles and is former world doubles champion and World Team Cup silver medallist amongst a number of other national and international successes.
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 Robert Hall, OAM is an Australian former professional wheelchair tennis player. With eight US Open singles titles, two Masters singles titles, and a Paralympic gold medal in singles, he has been referred to as Australia's greatest ever wheelchair tennis player.
Daphne Jean Hilton was an Australian Paralympic competitor. She was the first Australian woman to compete at the Paralympic Games. She won fourteen medals in three Paralympics in archery, athletics, fencing, swimming, and table tennis from 1960 to 1968.
Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, sailor, and politician. She is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Gosford since the 2017 Gosford state by-election.
Karen Farrell is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, who won two silver medals at the Paralympic Games.
Donna Ritchie (born 28 December 1963 in Manly, New South Wales is an Australian former wheelchair basketball player. She was part of the silver medal-winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics.
Fabian John Blattman, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He became disabled after a motorbike accident. He started playing disabled bowls, before switching to athletics. As a Paralympic athletics competitor, he has set several world records and won two Paralympic gold medals.
Karni Liddell is a Paralympic swimming competitor from Australia.
Cameron de Burgh is an Australian Paralympic swimmer, who has won four medals at two Paralympics.
Daniela "Danni" Di Toro is an Australian wheelchair tennis and 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.
Janel Manns is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. She has been selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in tennis.
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.
Maria Dolores "Lola" Ochoa Ribes is a Spanish wheelchair tennis player. A paraplegic as a result of an accident when she was 14, she picked up tennis as a wheelchair player following it. She has gone on to represent Spain at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, 2008 Summer Paralympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, and the 2013 World Championships. In 2013, she was ranked 61st in the world.
Chantal Vandierendonck is a Dutch former professional wheelchair tennis player. Vandierendonck won various wheelchair tennis championships held by the International Tennis Federation and multiple Paralympic medals from 1988 to 1996. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.
Diede de Groot is a Dutch professional wheelchair tennis player who is the current world No. 1 in both singles and doubles.
For the American retired actress, see Nancy Olson.
