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Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for those who have disabilities in their lower bodies. The size of courts, balls, and rackets are same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis; athletes use specially designed wheelchairs and the ball may bounce up to two times. The second bounce may also occur outside of the court. This is one of the official Paralympic sports and also played at Grand Slams. There are three categories; Men, Ladies, and Quads and each category has singles and doubles tournaments. Quads is the category for those with quadriplegia and it is sometimes called Mixed especially at Paralympic Games. Quads players can hold rackets taped to the hand and use electric-powered wheelchairs. ==History== Wheelchair tennis increased in popularity in 1976 due to the efforts of Brad Parks, who is seen as the creator of competitive wheelchair tennis. In 1982, France became the first country in Europe to put a wheelchair tennis programme in place.〔(【引用サイトリンク】website=ITF Tennis Wheelchair )〕 Since then, much effort has made to promote the sport to rid it of its 'therapy' image that still affects many sports for people with disabilities. The sport quickly became popular worldwide and was introduced to the Paralympic Games as a demonstration event at the Seoul 1988 Summer Paralympics. It was at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona that wheelchair tennis acquired the status of a full-fledged competition. The 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney boosted public awareness immensely and led to the introduction of the sport to Grand Slams of pedestrian tennis. For the 2013 season the ITF decided to adopt match tiebreakers in place of a third and deciding set in doubles matches. However the tiebreaker would only be used at events which were rated as ITF1 or lower and at the World Team Cup. The grand slams however were free to decide on the format of their tournaments.〔http://www.itftennis.com/wheelchair/news/articles/match-tiebreaks-in-doubles-matches-from-2013.aspx〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「wheelchair tennis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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