When and where to watch wheelchair tennis paralympics 2024: Schedule, channels and streaming

Did you catch what the Google search page featured yesterday and today? The latest Google Doodle showcased two animated birds—one brown and the other blue—playing wheelchair tennis at the Jardin des Tuileries in France. These lively birds, depicted in an engaging cartoon, hit the ball back and forth in celebration of the ongoing wheelchair tennis tournament at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Wheelchair tennis has become one of the fastest-growing sports globally. Since it officially began five decades ago, the sport’s surge in popularity has demonstrated that tennis is not just for the birds—or for people with specific abilities. It’s evolved into an increasingly inclusive sport, accessible to individuals of various ages, conditions, and backgrounds.

This growth in wheelchair tennis has inspired many around the world. So it’s fitting that the Google Doodle page captioned the animation with: “Ace attitudes and stellar serves. Wheelchair Tennis starts today at Stade Roland-Garros!” For those familiar with tennis, Roland Garros Stadium, with its iconic red clay courts, is where the French Open is held annually. This year, it’s also the site for the wheelchair tennis events of the 2024 Summer Paralympics, continuing through September 7.

The Paralympic events are taking place on the same courts used for the 2024 French Open, with no significant modifications to court sizes. Players use the same types of rackets and tennis balls, and the net height remains the same at 0.914 meters (or three feet) at its center. The players, however, compete in wheelchairs.

The primary difference in the rules is the “two-bounce rule.” Unlike traditional tennis, where players must return the ball before it bounces twice on their side, wheelchair tennis allows for two bounces. This rule accounts for the challenge of maneuvering the wheelchair across the court.

The 2024 Paris Paralympics feature a variety of singles and doubles wheelchair tennis events for both men and women. In addition to the Open draws for those with permanent lower limb impairments, there are Quad draws for athletes with additional upper limb impairments that affect their ability to handle the racket and wheelchair.

In September 2022, I covered the 2022 U.S. Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships for Forbes, exploring how the sport originated after a 1976 skiing accident left American Brad Parks paralyzed from the hips down. Parks, alongside Jeff Minnebraker, tirelessly worked to get wheelchair tennis off the ground, overcoming numerous challenges. Their efforts eventually paid off, leading to the sport becoming a fixture in all four Grand Slam tournaments—the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open. Today, the International Tennis Federation’s Wheelchair Tennis Tour includes more than 150 events worldwide.

Wheelchair tennis has also become a mainstay in the Paralympics. France was the first European country to establish an official wheelchair program in the 1980s. By 1992, the sport made its Paralympic debut in Barcelona, Spain, and has only grown since.

This year’s Paralympics wheelchair tennis event features a star-studded lineup. In the men’s Open singles competition, notable players include Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett, Spain’s Martin De La Puente, Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez, and Japan’s Todiko Oda, the latter being the heir apparent to Japan’s legendary Shingo Kunieda, often hailed as the greatest of all time in wheelchair tennis.

In the women’s Open singles draw, on September 3, The Netherlands’ Diede de Groot advanced to the semifinals with a straight-set victory over China’s Luoyao Gao. De Groot has dominated the sport in recent years, achieving a Grand Slam—winning all four Grand Slam titles in one year—not just once, but three times between 2021 and 2023. Every time de Groot competes, she continues to build her legacy as one of the greatest in the sport.

If you’re looking for a sport that’s not only enjoyable to watch but also deeply inspirational, wheelchair tennis is worth your attention. The sport combines the strategy and movement inherent in all forms of tennis with the remarkable skill of athletes who have overcome adversity to perform at the highest levels.