The most significant difference in rules between 'tennis for pedestrian' and wheelchair tennis has to do with the number of bounces allowed for a tennis ball to hit the ground before it must be returned. Thus, in wheelchair tennis a ball is allowed to bounce up to two times before it is played, moreover, the second bounce may occur outside of the court. This rule is also applicable to service.
Since the foundation of wheelchair tennis in mid 70-s, a lot of efforts have been made in order to promote the sport and get rid of the common therapy image that is still peculiar to many sports for disabled people today. It has been Paralympic sport from the time when the Summer Paralympics took place in Seoul in 1988, but only in 1992, when Summer Paralympics were held in Barcelona, the wheelchair tennis was granted the standing of a full-fledged competition. Immense leap of public awareness was achieved in 2000 during the Summer Paralympics in Sydney. Some of the most exciting actions of all the Paralympic Games may well be seen especially in the final rounds of the men's tournaments.
Just like non-wheelchair tennis wheelchair tennis has its own international tour. The NEC Wheelchair tennis tour was commenced in 1992 and involved 11 international tournaments at the early stage. It has considerably grown in popularity and size over the years and today involves more that 100 events played worldwide. To be admitted to compete, wheelchair tennis players have to be diagnosed by medical commission permanent physical disability related to player's mobility which has to result in considerable loss of function in one or two lower extremities.
The ITF Medical Commission has been set up to serve a range of functions within the wheelchair tennis including the resolution of eligibility cases. The commission of ITF is made up of doctors, legal representatives, representative(s) of wheelchair tennis players and other human resources skilled in wheelchair tennis.
There have been a lot of great wheelchair tennis players some of whom have become existing legends. David Hall, Michael Jeremiasz, Kai Schramayer, Randy Snow, Stephen Welch, Ricky Molier, Laurent Giammartini from men and Esther Vergeer, Daniela Di Toro, Chantai Vandierendonck, Monique Kalkman and Monique van den Bosch from women all belong to the legends of wheelchair tennis.
It's worthy of note that since 1991 the International Tennis Federation has honored its wheelchair tennis players who have become champions annually along with the ITF World Champions. Since that time, the wheelchair tennis champions have been receiving their awards at the World Champions Dinner during the French Open.