Who should you watch in wheelchair tennis?

The Netherlands' Aniek van Koot beat Germany's Sabine Ellerbrock for the women's singles title in Melbourne. © • Getty Images Britain’s Wheelchair Tennis Player Andrew Lapthorne. © • Getty Images

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The IPC’s Ones to Watch initiative showcases the top athletes around the world, with all of the wheelchair tennis selections having won major tournaments or medals, in addition to strong appearances in the media.

With just one week until Wimbledon, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) revealed the wheelchair tennis Ones to Watch list for the road to Rio 2016 on Friday (28 June).

The IPC’s Ones to Watch initiative showcases the top athletes around the world, with all of the wheelchair tennis selections having won major tournaments or medals, in addition to strong appearances in the media.

The three men’s players on the list include Japan’s defending Paralympic singles champion and world No. 1 Shingo Kunieda, France’s recent Roland Garros winner Stephane Houdet and Argentina’s 19-year-old rising star Gustavo Fernandez.

On the women’s side, the list includes the Netherlands’ Aniek van Koot, who is world No. 1 and a double silver medallist at London 2012. Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock, ranked second in the world now following her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros earlier this month, is on the list, as is South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane, the first African wheelchair tennis player to ever compete in a Grand Slam event.

Two quads players round out the selections in the USA’s David Wagner and Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne.

Wagner is the most experienced of the quads and is currently ranked No. 1 in the world, but Lapthorne is an up-and-coming threat to reach the top of the podium at the Rio 2016 Games.

These names are not necessarily the Ones to Watch athletes for Rio 2016, but are the ones to keep your eyes on throughout the upcoming Grand Slam and NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour events in the next Paralympic cycle.

A number of other activities will also be implemented across social media in a concerted effort to boost the profiles of these athletes and make them household names for years to come.

The IPC’s Ones to Watch campaign launched in the lead-up to London 2012, when a new section was included within Paralympic.org, entitled Ones to Watch. This series of pages was designed to raise the profiles of leading medal contenders in Paralympic sports and act as an essential media resource.