María Angélica Bernal Villalobos (born 27 March 1995) is a Colombian

wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis Adaptive sport, adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designe ...

player who competes in international level events. She is a multiple

Parapan American Games The Parapan American Games is an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities held every four years after every Pan American Games. The first Games were held in 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico. The 2003 Parapan American Ga ...

medalist and has competed in the

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

twice. Bernal has

phocomelia Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which result in a flipper-like appendage. A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother being prescribed the use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; ho ...

and was born without her right leg and uses a

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (Congenital, congenital disord ...

since she was two years old. She played wheelchair tennis aged eleven when she was inspired by

Esther Vergeer Esther Mary Vergeer (; born 18 July 1981) is a Dutch former professional wheelchair tennis player. Vergeer won 43 major titles (21 in singles and 22 in doubles), 23 year-end championships (14 consecutive in singles and nine in doubles), and se ...

and

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...

. She participated at the 2020 US Open for the first time and was a semifinalist in both the wheelchair women's singles and doubles events.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Wheelchair singles

Wheelchair doubles

References

External links