British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonathanH wrote:

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As well as Intellectual Disability and Deaf/Hard of Hearing tournaments, the Australian Open will include a Blind/Low Vision tournament as well, with the top 16 players taking part in a team competition between Team Australia and Team World. Team World includes a British player, Naqi Rizvi.

Here is the article if anyone wants to read it:

ausopen.com/articles/news/australian-open-2026-blind-and-low-vision-showdown-make-grand-slam-history

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 Amazing - there seem to be different levels of disability which allow for different rules around bounces etc in the blind/low vision event. there is another British, Ivan Rodriguez- Deb who is also playing. 

JonathanH wrote:

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Australia seems to be way ahead in terms of the other forms of disability tennis and providing inclusive events. The UK and the LTA seem to be close behind though. I guess it may be a matter of funding. The manager of Team World seems to be Sophie Hall, the Disability Competitions Manager at the LTA. The LTA announced a 25% increase in funding for disability tennis at the end of 2025, so hopefully there will be even more opportunities and more players with disabilities getting involved.

In terms of the AO Intellectual Disability and DHOH tournaments, I'm assuming Esah Hyat will be playing in the men's DHOH? And Anna McBride will be defending her title in the ID tournament?

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 Pretty sure that Annas Dad said the AO was a key target for Anna. she was quite poorly and injured back end of last year but getting herself fit for Australia. They may already have made their way down to Australia or will be shortly.