Paralympian Ezra Frech gives us his “Paralympics 101” and details four things to keep in mind as you watch the Paris Games.
With the 2024 Paralympic Games underway, wheelchair tennis matches are heating up in the final rounds.
Thanks to Google featuring the sport with an adorable Google Doodle of birds playing wheelchair tennis, and perhaps the craze surrounding the U.S. Open, search interest in tennis spiked this week, with many looking to see when the next matches are.
Here's what you need to know about wheelchair tennis:
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How many wheelchair tennis events are there?
There are six medals to win at the Paralympics in wheelchair tennis, four in the open division and two in the quad division.
In the open division, athletes are impaired in one or both legs and categorized by gender: men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles and women's doubles.
In the quad division, quad singles and quad doubles, at least three of the athlete's limbs are affected and genders are mixed.
Tennis
Wheelchair tennis Paralympics 2024 schedule
Gold and bronze medal matches will be played from Wednesday, Sept. 4 through Saturday, Sept. 7, starting at 6 a.m. ET and 7:30 a.m. ET.
Although, no Americans made it to the final rounds.
Click here to see the full schedule on the Paralympics' website.
How to watch Paralympic wheelchair tennis
The Paralympic Games can be watched on-demand on Peacock.
Can tennis players in the Paralympics compete in the U.S. Open?
Because the two events overlap in 2024, players cannot play both of the events.
Due to the scheduling conflict, the USTA canceled the U.S. Open wheelchair events but will allow athletes to be compensated financially.
"As there is no Wheelchair Tournament at the 2024 U.S. Open due to the Paralympic Games, the USTA has made the decision to provide the players that would have been entered into the US Open via direct acceptance with a player grant, to ensure that these players are receiving the equivalent of prize
money as compensation," the U.S. Open press release said.
