David Hall

David Robert Hall, OAM (born 14 January 1970) is an Australian former professional wheelchair tennis player. With eight US Open singles titles, two Masters singles titles, and a Paralympic gold medal in singles, he has been referred to as Australia's greatest ever wheelchair tennis player.

Biography Born in Sydney, Australia, Hall was raised in the New South Wales coastal town of Budgewoi, attending Budgewoi Public School and Northlakes High School. On 11 October 1986, at the age of 16, Hall lost his legs after being hit by a car. 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 Terry Mason in a wheelchair playing tennis.

Hall had played tennis growing up and at the age of 13 and 14 had been Club Champion at his local tennis club under the coaching supervision of Allan McDonald. Inspired, Hall began to play and entered his first wheelchair tennis competition, the 'Albury-Wodonga Classic', 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. He was a member of Australia's World Cup winning teams in 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2002. He 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. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder from 1995 to 2000.

Professional career Hall played professionally for more than a decade before officially retiring from competition in 2006. He announced his retirement from the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour in June 2006.

Australian Open Hall won nine Australian Opens in the men's singles wheelchair event. He won his first British Open in 1995.

British Open Hall won seven British Opens in the men's singles wheelchair event. In 2005, Japan's Shingo Kunieda beat David Hall in the quarter-finals of the US Open. Hall was the first non-American to win the U.S. Open Super Series title.

Paralympic Games

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 the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2001 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games."

Other events He competed in more than seventy other tournaments. Quote box title = Hall on induction to Australian Sporting Hall of Fame It was an amazing feeling and made me feel very proud to be an Australian, especially considering we have such a rich sporting history in this country. For me, the wonderful thing about being inducted is that it recognises disability sporting achievements, being recognised felt like a real validation for Paralympic sport and Paralympic athletes.

Hall was a writer for Sports 'n Spokes Magazine. For ten years he worked for Tennis Australia in promoting and raising awareness of wheelchair tennis within Australia. as an ambassador from 2007 to 2010. As part of a Sydney Morning Herald report in 2009, Hall toured the city of Sydney to explore the city's wheelchair accessibility. Hall highlighted some of the frustrations of using public transport.

During the Australian Tennis Open in 2015, he was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.

In July 2015, Hall was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame In April 2016, he was awarded the International Tennis Federation's Brad Parks Award for his significant contribution to wheelchair tennis on an international basis.

In December 2016, Hall was inducted into the Australian Paralympic Hall of Fame.