Tennis Queensland are delighted to welcome a special guest speaker to the 2012 Queensland Tennis Awards – David Hall, OAM.  David is an Australian wheelchair tennis player. He has been referred to as Australia’s greatest ever wheelchair tennis player.

Born in Sydney, David Hall had both his legs amputated after being hit by a car at age 16. After a long period of rehabilitation, Hall began working as a clerk at the local police station. It was around this time that Hall was looking through the local paper and saw a picture of a man in a wheelchair playing tennis.

Hall began to play and entered his first wheelchair tennis competition in 1988. This led to him competing in his first Australian Open in February 1989. Playing in the C division, Hall won. The following year, Hall participated in his first international competition and turned professional in 1993. 1995 saw Hall relocate to the United States. The year culminated with Hall winning the US Open Singles title and being ranked number one in the world.

In his career, Hall won all of the major world titles and was ranked as the world number one player for six years. He won Paralympic gold, silver and bronze medals and 18 Super Series titles. He was a member of Australia’s World Cup winning teams in 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2002 and was ranked World No 1 for eight of the years between 1995 and 2005.  Between 1995 and 2005 he won the Australian Open Wheelchair tennis title nine times, the British Open seven times, the US Open eight times, and the Japan Open eight times.

Hall played professionally for more than a decade before officially retiring from competition in 2006.

Hall represented Australia at the Paralympic Games four times; First in 1992 at Barcelona, Atlanta in 1996, where he won a silver medal in the doubles and a bronze medal in the singles, Sydney in 2000, where he won a gold medal in the singles and a silver medal in the doubles, and Athens in 2004, where he won a silver medal in the singles and a bronze medal in the doubles.  He received a Medal of the Order of Australia for his 2000 gold medal.

Hall’s accomplishments culminated in him being inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2010. He is one of only three Paralympians to have been given the honour.

 Hall now works to improve Australian tennis through coaching, talent search and educating able bodied players about wheelchair tennis.