Esther Vergeer

Esther Vergeer (born July 18 1981, Woerden) is a Dutch former wheelchair basketball and current wheelchair tennis player. She is five-fold Paralympics tennis champion, eight-fold consecutive world-champion, and has been the world's top ranked player since 1999. Unbeaten since January 2003, she may be the most dominant player in any professional sports.

Vergeer became paraplegic when she was 8 years old due to an otherwise successful, very risky surgery concerning hemorrhaging blood vessels around her spinal cord. During revalidation she learned to play volleyball, basketball, and tennis in a wheelchair. After playing basketball for several years at club level, she was invited to join the national wheelchair basketball team. She played with the Dutch team that won the European championship in 1997.

Vergeer had started playing tennis in parallel with basketball, playing her first international tournament in 1996, and switched to full-time tennis in 1998. Coached by Marc Kalkman, her first big win was at the US Open championships in 1998, moving her from 15th to 2nd in the world ranking. During the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney she did not lose a set to win the gold medal in singles and also won the doubles title with Maaike Smit as her partner.

At international tournaments, Vergeer has (as of August 6, 2008) won 133 singles and 117 doubles titles . Her overall record is 554 wins and 25 losses in singles, and 375 wins and 28 losses in doubles [ [http://www.itftennis.com/wheelchair/players/player.asp?player=55000204 ITF profile] ] . Since March 31, 2001 she has lost only one singles match (on Jan 30 2003 at the Sydney International to Daniela Di Toro from Australia). Between August 2004 and October 2006 she won 250 consecutive sets, only one of which ended with a tiebreaker. Vergeer is currently on a 350-match winning streak [ [http://www.itftennis.com/abouttheitf/news/newsarticle.asp?articleid=18222 "2007 ITF World Champions Announced"] ] [ [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympian/2008-09/15/content_7027454.htm "Win No 350 for Vergeer"] ] .

She has been nominated five times [ [http://www.laureus.com/press_releases?article_id=1293 Laureus World Sports Awards Press Release, January 24, 2008 ] ] for the Laureus Award for Sportsperson with a Disability of the Year, winning it twice in 2002 and 2008.

Major titles

*Australian Open: singles 2002-4, 2006-8, doubles 2003, 2006-8
*Wimbledon: singles 2000-2008, doubles 1998-2004, 2006-8
*French Open: singles 1999-2002, 2005-8, doubles 1999, 2002, 2005-8
*Japan Open: singles 2004, 2007-8, doubles 2004, 2007-8
*US Open: singles 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005-7, doubles 1998- 2000, 2003, 2005-7
*NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters: singles 1998-2007, doubles 1998-2003
*Paralympic Games: singles 2000,2004, 2008 & doubles 2000, 2004

References

External links

* [http://www.esthervergeer.nl/ Official site]
* [http://www.sportscolumn.com/story/2007/6/5/211840/8543 sportscolumn.com]
*ITF wheelchair profile|number=55000204 | name=Esther Vergeer