Daniela Di Toro

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Daniela Di Toro
File:XXXX15 - Daniela Di Toro - 3b - 2016 Team processing.jpg
2016 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Di Toro
Full name Daniela Di Toro
Country (sports)  Australia
Residence Melbourne, Australia
Born (1974-10-16) 16 October 1974 (age 49)
Melbourne, Australia
Turned pro 1988
Plays Right Handed
Singles
Career record 394-115
Highest ranking No. 1 (14 July 1998)
Current ranking 5
Other tournaments
Masters F (1996, 2010)
Paralympic Games Bronze medal Paralympics.svg Bronze Medal (2004)
Doubles
Career record 256-77
Highest ranking No. 1 (20 May 1997)
Current ranking 48
Grand Slam Doubles results
French Open W (2010)
Wimbledon F (2009, 2010)
Other doubles tournaments
Masters Doubles W (2000)
Paralympic Games Silver medal Paralympics.svg Silver Medal (2000)
World Team Cup Gold medal world centered-2.svg Champion (1999)
Last updated on: 29 January 2012.

Daniela [Monique Sage] Di Toro (born 16 October 1974) is an Australian Wheelchair tennis player. Di Toro was the 2010 French Open doubles champion and has also been the Masters double champion. In singles Di Toro is the former world number one and two time masters finalist. In 2015, she moved to para-table tennis and has been selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.[1]


Personal life

Daniela [Monique Sage] Di Toro was born on 16 October 1974 in Melbourne, Victoria. She became a paraplegic in 1988 in an accident while competing at a school swimming carnival, when a wall fell on her.[2][3] While in hospital, following her accident, Di Toro met Sandy Blythe, a member of the Australian Rollers. He inspired her to continue to pursue sports. She lives in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury[4] and she works as a youth worker in Melbourne.[3]

Competitive tennis

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In the past I've always been so caught up in my own competition, I've missed out on seeing my friends compete and getting a sense of what people must feel when they're at a Paralympic Games. It's extraordinary.

Daniela Di Toro[2]

In wheelchair tennis, Di Toro is classified as Paraplegic T12/L1. She first started playing tennis when she was nine. She started playing wheelchair tennis in 1988, and started representing Australia in 1989, winning the Australian Open in 1991 – it would be her first of ten Australian Open titles. Internationally, she has been ranked as high as number one.[2] She was once a scholarship holder at the Victorian Institute of Sport.[5] As a professional tennis player, Di Toro has won more than three hundred matches. She is coached by Greg Crump.[4] She trains at the Tennis Centre and Nunawading.[5] Her club tennis is with Wheelchair Sport Victoria.[5]

At the end of the 2010 season, Di Toro was ranked second in the world. During the 2010 season, she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, semifinals of the French Open and finals of the US Open. In 2010, she won the Japan Open and the Korean Open.[6] In 2010, Di Toro competed in the women's double tennis events at the four major tennis events. Her partners were Lucy Shuker of Great Britain and Aniek Van Koot of Holland.[7] Di Toro was injured in 2011, and had to pull out of the French and Korean Opens because her neck was inflamed. The injury happened while she was competing at the Japanese Open and was a herniated disc.[8]

Paralympics

Di Toro has competed at several Paralympic Games including Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.[2] She won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Women's Doubles event,[9] with Branka Pupovac as her partner. She won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games in the Women's singles event. She competed at the 2008 Paralympics, and was the only female wheelchair tennis player on the Australian team.[2]

File:020912 - Daniela Di Toro - 3b - 2012 Summer Paralympics.JPG
Di Toro playing at the 2012 London Paralympics

Kobe Open

Di Toro won the Kobe Open in 2003 in the women's singles event.[5]

Retirement

In 2005, Di Toro retired from competitive tennis in order to spend more time studying Chinese medicine. She would end her career with 12 Australian Open titles, 4 US Open titles, 4 French Open titles, a winner of the 2000 Wheelchair Tennis Masters Doubles event, and carrying a silver and bronze Olympic medal. Following her 2005 retirement, she continued to be active in the wheelchair tennis community by coaching young tennis players.

Return from Retirement

In January 2007, Di Toro came out of retirement to compete in the Australian Open's Wheelchair Tennis Super Series event where she lost in the first round. She would have more success in doubles, where she made the semi-finals with partner Lucy Shuker. She made her first finals appearance after retirement at Wimbledon in 2009. She would go on to make 6 straight finals including winning the 2010 French Open, beating Esther Vergeer and Sharon Walraven. She also made two finals appearances in singles, at the 2010 US Open and 2011 Australian Open. In 2010 she made the finals of the Wheelchair Tennis Masters in singles.

Table Tennis

She is a Class 4 table tennis player. In April 2015, Toro dominated in the C3-5 competition at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Oceania Para-Table Tennis Championships. This was her first international para-table tennis competition after her move from wheelchair tennis.[10]

Recognition

In 1999, Di Toro was named the Australian Paralympian of the Year.[2] In 2000, she received an Australian Sports Medal,[11] and in 2001, she was named the Young Victorian of the Year.[12] In 2010, she was nominated as the Most Outstanding athlete with a disability by Tennis Australia.[6] She was appointed team captain with Kurt Fearnley for the Australian Team at the 2016 Rio Paralympics [13]

Tennis Career Statistics

Key
W  F  SF QF R# RR Q# A NH
(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent from tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.

Grand Slam singles

**To prevent confusion, this table only includes the events which took place from 2002 onwards at the Grand Slam venues.

Tournament
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Singles
Australian Open F[14] F[15] F[16] A A 1R[17] 1R[18] SF[19] QF F QF
French Open NH NH NH NH NH A A A SF A
US Open NH NH NH A A A NH QF F QF
Doubles
Australian Open NH NH SF[16] A A QF[20] SF[18] SF[19] F SF SF
French Open NH NH NH NH NH A A A W A
Wimbledon NH NH NH NH NH NH NH F F A
US Open NH NH NH NH A A NH F F QF

Wheelchair Tennis Masters and Paralympic games

Tournament 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Wheelchair Tennis Masters
WTM Singles NH NH NH A A F[21] SF[22] A SF[23] RR A A A A A A A A SF F RR
WTM Doubles NH NH NH NH NH NH NH NH NH W[24] A A A A A A A A RR A A
Paralympic Games
Singles - A - - - SF - - - QF - - - SF-B - - - 1R - - -
Doubles - A - - - SF - - - RU - - - ? - - - A - - -

References

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Awards and achievements
Preceded by Young Victorian of the Year
2001
Succeeded by
Karen Chatto

External links