Esther Vergeer

[Sir David Gray]

Not sure if anyone on here will have heard of her before but Esther Vergeer is a wheelchair tennis player from the Netherlands and she is currently on one of the longest winning streaks, I would imagine, out of any sports person in the entire world.

She hasn't been beaten...wait for it...for almost 10 years now (stretching back to January 2003) and has just started her gold medal match against her fellow Dutch player Aniek Van Koot. If she wins gold today, she'll have won her 470th consecutive match!

Absolutely astonishing achievement.

If anyone's interested, it's currently on the Paralympics 1 channel, which is channel 450 on Sky. Not sure what it is on other platforms.

Vergeer leads 2-0 in the first set.

For anyone who does end up watching this, just to make you aware, the only difference between wheelchair tennis and its able-bodied equivalent is that the ball is allowed to bounce twice before being hit.

Everything else is exactly the same.

[BarneyK]

Not sure if anyone on here will have heard of her before but Esther Vergeer is a wheelchair tennis player from the Netherlands and she is currently on one of the longest winning streaks, I would imagine, out of any sports person in the entire world.

She hasn't been beaten...wait for it...for almost 10 years now (stretching back to January 2003) and has just started her gold medal match against her fellow Dutch player Aniek Van Koot. If she wins gold today, she'll have won her 470th consecutive match!

Absolutely astonishing achievement.

If anyone's interested, it's currently on the Paralympics 1 channel, which is channel 450 on Sky. Not sure what it is on other platforms.

Vergeer leads 2-0 in the first set.

For anyone who does end up watching this, just to make you aware, the only difference between wheelchair tennis and its able-bodied equivalent is that the ball is allowed to bounce twice before being hit.

Everything else is exactly the same.

Cannae get it on freeview :boo hoo:

[Sir David Gray]

Oh well, slighly one-sided so far to say the least!

6-0 to Vergeer in the first set!

And her opponent is number two in the world as well!

[Sir David Gray]

Cannae get it on freeview :boo hoo:

You'll get it on Channel 4's website.

http://paralympics.channel4.com/video/stream1.html

[BarneyK]

You'll get it on Channel 4's website.

http://paralympics.channel4.com/video/stream1.html

Not at work I'll no :greengrin

[Sir David Gray]

Not at work I'll no :greengrin

Ahh right, fair point!

It'll be over soon anyway!

6-0 4-0 to Vergeer.

Amazing!

[Sir David Gray]

Van Koot's on the board!

6-0 4-1!

[Sir David Gray]

Second set was slightly more competitve but it's 470 not out for Esther Vergeer as she wins her 4th gold medal at the Paralympics after winning 6-0 6-3.

Stunning.

[Sylar]

Does she have some obvious "advantage" (not the best word, but I can't think of better right now).

In essence, is there an aspect of her person, game or fitness which distinguishes her and gives her some form of upper hand?

[Sir David Gray]

Does she have some obvious "advantage" (not the best word, but I can't think of better right now).

In essence, is there an aspect of her person, game or fitness which distinguishes her and gives her some form of upper hand?

As far as I'm aware the only advantage she has is that she's just better than anyone else in the women's game.

Every wheelchair tennis player has a different kind of disability from someone else that plays the sport. Some players have the ability to walk (albeit not very well), some players have either one or both legs amputated, some players have a spinal cord injury which means they have no power in their legs at all but have no disability in their upper body and others have a spinal cord injury which affects both their upper and lower body in some way (they play the "quad" version of the sport).

Esther Vergeer has a spinal cord injury, which developed when she was 8 years old after she underwent surgery to clear up haemorrhaging blood vessels around her spinal cord. Since then, she has had no use of her legs but has full use of her body from the waist up.

Her opponent today, Aniek Van Koot, is an amputee after losing her leg as a child due to complications during surgery to lengthen one of her legs (she was born with one leg longer than the other).

Again, she has full use of her body from the waist up.

I understand where you're coming from though. Sometimes, if a player has a less severe disability than their opponent then they do have a bit of an advantage, but when it's a run stretching for almost 10 years, I don't think it can really be put down to that alone to be honest.

[HibsMax]

Perhaps there is just less competition? I don't know the numbers but I imagine it will be slightly easier to be a standout in a sport like this just simply because there are less people playing. That is in no means an attempt to lessen her achievement. I just watched her on youtube and it's amazing.

[Sylar]

As far as I'm aware the only advantage she has is that she's just better than anyone else in the women's game.

Every wheelchair tennis player has a different kind of disability from someone else that plays the sport. Some players have the ability to walk (albeit not very well), some players have either one or both legs amputated, some players have a spinal cord injury which means they have no power in their legs at all but have no disability in their upper body and others have a spinal cord injury which affects both their upper and lower body in some way (they play the "quad" version of the sport).

Esther Vergeer has a spinal cord injury, which developed when she was 8 years old after she underwent surgery to clear up haemorrhaging blood vessels around her spinal cord. Since then, she has had no use of her legs but has full use of her body from the waist up.

Her opponent today, Aniek Van Koot, is an amputee after losing her leg as a child due to complications during surgery to lengthen one of her legs (she was born with one leg longer than the other).

Again, she has full use of her body from the waist up.

I understand where you're coming from though. Sometimes, if a player has a less severe disability than their opponent then they do have a bit of an advantage, but when it's a run stretching for almost 10 years, I don't think it can really be put down to that alone to be honest.

Cheers FH and I hope that didn't seem a disrespectful query in any way. As per Max's comments, it was also not intended to try and diminish what is a very impressive achievement.

When we talk about able-bodied athletes, it's often things like a "solid backhand, great serve, good return game" etc which define their successes, when there's pretty much a level playing field (other than physical/strength/stamina etc) and that was partially what I was getting at.

But I guess it is an interesting point, how different disabilities match up in such a sport.

Again, hoping that doesn't sound disrespectful.

[Sir David Gray]

Perhaps there is just less competition? I don't know the numbers but I imagine it will be slightly easier to be a standout in a sport like this just simply because there are less people playing. That is in no means an attempt to lessen her achievement. I just watched her on youtube and it's amazing.

Definitely less people playing women's wheelchair tennis than there is in the women's able bodied equivalent. One of the most obvious reasons for that is that there's simply more able bodied people in the world than there are disabled people.

There's more than double the amount of men playing wheelchair tennis than there are women, which is maybe why there's no men who really have the same kind of dominance that Esther Vergeer has enjoyed.

But, still, when she's playing maybe around 50 matches a year, to have won every single one of those matches in nearly 10 years is an amazing achievement.


Cheers FH and I hope that didn't seem a disrespectful query in any way. As per Max's comments, it was also not intended to try and diminish what is a very impressive achievement.

When we talk about able-bodied athletes, it's often things like a "solid backhand, great serve, good return game" etc which define their successes, when there's pretty much a level playing field (other than physical/strength/stamina etc) and that was partially what I was getting at.

But I guess it is an interesting point, how different disabilities match up in such a sport.

Again, hoping that doesn't sound disrespectful.

Not at all. I think it's good that people are beginning to sit up and take notice of disabled sport and hopefully the fact that the Paralympics has been given such great coverage this year will give people in this country a different perspective of disabled athletes.

The Paralympics is no longer a competition where medals are handed out like confetti and practically anyone can qualify to compete.

A lot of the athletes in the British squad at this year's event are full time professional athletes who work tirelessly to become the best in their chosen sport, just like the athletes in the Olympics and the criteria that they have to meet to become part of the British team is set extremely high.

Going back to the whole issue of the match ups in disabled sport, I think the biggest aspect of it, certainly in a sport like tennis anyway, is how well one player is able to overcome and manage their disability in comparison with their opponent.

Some players are unable to reach a lot of high balls as their disability will not allow their arm to extend that high above their head to hit the ball so their opponent knows all this before the match and they will focus on hitting a lot of lobs because they know the chances are, the ball won't be coming back and if it does then it will be a weak shot.

It sounds quite harsh on the face of it and I struggled with the whole idea of that when I first heard players talking about things like that but when the whole aim is to win, you really have to do whatever you can in order to achieve that aim.

[Sir David Gray]

Also meant to say yesterday, a huge well done to Jordanne Whiley and Lucy Shuker who won the bronze medal in the ladies doubles event yesterday after saving a match point in the second set. :aok:

They won 6-7 7-6 6-3 after more than 3 hours!

Peter Norfolk and Andrew Lapthorne also did really well, winning the silver medal in the quad doubles event.