Abbie Breakwell: ParalympicsGB wheelchair tennis player reflects on chance meeting that launched career

It was a suggestion that, within a decade of taking up the sport, took her on to the famous clay courts of Roland Garros where she featured for ParalympicsGB at the Paris Games in 2024.

Earlier this season, the British number three from Long Eaton also hit a career-high ranking of 23 in the world.

And while the exhibition match that slots in alongside the finals at the Nottingham Open this weekend is not a competitive showdown, it will be a milestone moment at a venue she regards as her tennis home.

It is one of a number of matches taking place across the British grass-court season to mark 50 years of wheelchair tennis.

Breakwell says the match has given her a rare chance to reflect on all she has achieved in her young career as well as pause to appreciate how the sport has impacted her life.

“It opened the doors up to a whole new world,” she said.

“It’s a world of people who accept my disability, a world where I’ve made a lot of friends, a place where I found home with my disability and I realised it was OK to be different, it was OK to not be able to walk the same as everyone else and not to look the same as everybody else.

“The match is an incredible and huge moment because a lot of time as an athlete is spent looking forward to the next goal, the next thing I want to achieve, and sometimes we forget to look back.”