From Grassroots to the World Stage: British disability tennis reaches new heights in 2024

Partnered with and jointly funded by Sport England and the LTA Tennis Foundation, LTA Open Court provides disability specific sessions for tennis and padel – including learning disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, deaf, para standing and walking tennis and padel formats. The LTA also working with Age UK and Parkinsons UK to support deliver walking tennis and reach more people with long-term health conditions.

In 2024, LTA Open Court saw nearly 17,000 monthly players with a disability or long-term health condition, playing in over 600 tennis venues across Britain delivering the disability tennis programme. We are committed to continued investment in the LTA Open Court programme in 2025. The LTA Tennis Foundation also continues to support disability tennis, funding 73 adaptive tennis equipment bags for LTA Open Court venues across Britain to support the delivery of all formats of disability tennis. 

At a national level, the LTA Tennis Foundation's partnerships such as Access Sport and Dan Maskell Tennis Trust continue to go from strength to strength. The LTA Tennis Foundation announced an additional three years of funding for Access Sport to continue delivery of their pan-disability tennis offer empowering local tennis clubs, parks and venues to deliver new disability-inclusive activities and ensure the accessibility and inclusivity of these clubs and venues. The three-year grant awarded in 2023 to the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, who provide grants to disabled people to enable them to play tennis, is also continuing to see a huge impact. 2024, also saw the LTA Tennis Foundation award a grant to Inclusive Sport Kent, to deliver inclusive tennis sessions for disabled children, young people, and adults.

In 2024, LTA events saw significant enhancements in accessibility, creating a more inclusive and welcoming experience for disabled fans. Accessibility training was carried out with all members of staff working at our major events, including volunteers. Sensory bags were available to fans, containing ear defenders, ear plugs, sunglasses and fidget toys, alongside use of a quiet room to reduce sensory overload for neurodiverse fans.

At the cinch Championships, key messages on the big screen had British Sign Language translations thanks to a partnership with Signapse and hearing induction loops were available.  Action Audio was also available for a third year across semis and finals matches of the cinch Championships, a partnership between the LTA & AKQA strongly supported by RNIB and British Blind Sport. We are seeking to build on the accessibility of the 2024 grass court season with further improvements in 2025, including matching wheelchair accessible tickets at LTA events to the cheapest ticket price, ensuring that access doesn’t come at a financial disadvantage.

Making tennis more inclusive for disabled people sits at the heart of the our vision of Tennis Opened Up, and this year also saw the creation of the LTA’s Disability Advisory Group. The group has been established to help guide and shape the future of disability tennis in Britain as laid out in our ‘Open for All’ plan, which outlines how we will continue to provide disabled people with fair and equitable opportunities to access tennis. The six expert individuals appointed to the group, will ensure the voices of experts and lived experience are at the centre of British tennis – from grassroots to elite.

In 2024, deaf, LD, VI, and para standing tennis players representing Great Britain medalled 27 times on the international stage. Across the year, Great Britain saw international medal success in every disability performance programme supported by the LTA.

Learning Disability (LD) Tennis  

Great Britain’s LD team entered the year in peak form after becoming the most decorated tennis team of the 2023 Virtus Global Games, the pinnacle of all international learning disability tennis competitions.

In pursuit of international dominance in the upcoming season, leading British stars opened their campaigns at the Australian Open’s PwII Championships at Melbourne Park, where the II-1 women’s world No.1 Anna McBride remained undefeated to become the two-time singles and doubles champion in the tournament’s second year.

McBride would also later become paramount to Great Britain’s success at the 2024 Virtus World Tennis Championships as her domination at the summit of international LD tennis continued, securing two of Britain’s eventual four gold medals won.

The seven-strong squad, including longest-serving players Dominic Iannotti and Fabrice Higgins, medalled in all events in both the II-1 men’s and women’s categories, winning a combined 11 medals in Annecy, France.

Beyond McBride’s singles success, the Nottinghamshire-born talent also teamed up with Iannotti to win gold in the mixed doubles; the II-1 men’s world No.3 who later conjured his own success alongside Higgins in the II-1 men’s doubles and team events.

Meanwhile, the world No.2, Oliver Beadle, achieved the season of his career after finishing II-1 men’s singles runner-up, while his doubles partner Aidan Moody finished in third.

2024 also saw the inaugural cinch Championships Learning Disability Tennis Exhibition held at The Queen’s Club, under newly appointed tournament director, Jamie Murray.

Introduced to showcase the learning disability format and respective top-ranked stars, four British and two international LD players competed at the world-famed Queen’s Club, including Britain’s McBride, Beadle, Higgins, and Iannotti, and Australia’s Archie Graham and Mitchell James. Upon their maiden appearance at the Championships, Higgins finished runner-up to top seed Graham in the singles before teaming up with Beadle in the doubles to top the standings.

At the grassroots of the sport, LD tennis continues to go from strength to strength, as the most popular disability tennis format with the largest number of monthly participants. 2025 will also see nine plus LTA supported LD tennis competitions staged across Britain. 

Deaf Tennis

At the start of 2024, the seven-time Deaf Tennis National Champion, Esah Hayat, joined LD star McBride in sealing a British title treble after partnering Hungary’s Gabor Matthe, winning all three of their round-robin ties to lift the Australian Open DHoH men’s doubles title in January.

Just seven months later, fellow British flag-bearers Phoebe Suthers and Valerie Copenhagen would leave the 15th edition of the European Deaf Tennis Championships women’s doubles champions after an upset over the title favourites.

The successes seen at the height of the sport also translated at grassroots thanks to a growing number of Open Court Venues, as well as added hearing-impaired tennis festivals inspired by the long-standing annual North East festival founded and delivered by John Schofield, and daughter Anne.

Funded by the LTA Tennis Foundation, the festivals – ran across the North East, the Midlands, and London – achieved greater attendance levels compared to previous years, with over 100 children accounted for at the Coventry-based festival alone.

The third and final instalment in the trilogy was hosted together with the Deaf Tennis National Finals in Roehampton, where Hayat continued his unbeaten run while budding star, Charlie Denton, lifted his fifth successive U18 singles trophy.

2025 we will see the return of the Deaf Tennis National Finals at the National Tennis Centre. 

Visually Impaired (VI) Tennis

Great Britain’s VI tennis team also charged into the season having achieved success aplenty at their home IBSA World Games in the summer of 2023, medalling in 11 of the 14 events contested.

This year however, the squad turned their attention to the 2024 IBTA Tennis World Tennis Championships held in Lignano Sabbiardoro, Italy. It’s here where the newly formed partnership in Neil Balmorth and debutant Ewan Hayward won bronze in the B2-4 doubles category.

A few months prior and Naqi Rizvi, who is ranked world No.1 in the men’s B1 category, marked his maiden appearance representing Great Britain at the European Open Championships after being granted citizenship earlier this year.

Rizvi’s performance in Krakow saw him maintain his position at the top of the IBTA world rankings after striking gold in the B1 men’s singles draw, before later competing at SW19 where he won successive Play Your Way to Wimbledon titles.

The LTA will be supporting five VI tennis tournaments across Britain in 2025. 

Para Standing Tennis

Para standing tennis’s popularity has been growing exponentially, and with it, the format has come to be a feature at the fourth and final Grand Slam – the US Open, and as part of the Australian Open’s All-Abilities Day.

Great Britain’s Matthew Grover became a regular feature on the winner’s podium in Flushing Meadows after winning both the men’s singles event, and the men’s doubles alongside partner Joshua Philbeck of the USA.

In the lead up to his success in New York, Grover and Ross Cudmore dominated internationally, claiming European and World champions status after winning the PST1/2 doubles events at the European and World Championships in June.

The pair also achieved a podium finish in the singles at the European’s as Grover settled for second place in the men’s singles PST2 draw, and Cudmore in PST1, as well Georgia Routledge who secured silver in the women’s singles PST3.

Routledge also dominated at the World’s, securing gold in the singles to become the women’s singles PST3 World Champion, and her achievements were recognised as she was awarded the ECB Rising Star Award at the 2024 Variety Disability Sports Awards.

Para standing tennis is a new and evolving format of tennis for people with physical ambulatory impairments who play tennis without using a wheelchair. With over 500 players from 35 different countries, we are supporting its development in Britain through the LTA Open Court programme, running para-standing tennis competition and introductory camps for new players in partnership with Dan Maskell Tennis Trust. 2025 will see that support continue with additional learning opportunities for volunteers and coaches enhance their skillset.