Breakwell set to make her senior GB debut...
TEENAGE wheelchair tennis star Abbie Breakwell will make her senior GB debut after being named in the squad for the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.
The International Tennis Federation’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event – and the wheelchair tennis equivalent of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup – is taking place in Sardinia from September 27 to October 3.
Breakwell, 18, a member of the Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club, was part of the 2018 junior team but missed the 2019 World Team Cup due to school exams.
She will line up alongside threetime Paralympic doubles medallist Lucy Shuker and former Invictus
Games medallist Cornelia Oosthuizen, who were both members of Great Britain’s bronze medal-winning women’s team in 2019.
Breakwell said: “I’m delighted to be selected again to represent GB. It was so disappointing when last year’s World Team Cup was cancelled.
“For me, this is a very special one, being my debut in the women’s team, and it shows how far I’ve come and how much I have improved. It’s going to be a great experience to play against the best in the world.
“Since I first started playing, Lucy (Shuker) is one of the people I’ve watched as I’ve grown up, so it’s going to be great to play alongside her and gain from her experience.
“You can’t replace that feeling with anything when you first get your GB kit out.”
It follows results from
Games Finals.
In the girls singles Abbie only dropped two games on the way to victory. She is the only girl to medal in both singles and doubles in all School Games Finals since 2016, which was the inaugural year for girls taking part.
Meanwhile, Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club members Dahnon Ward, 16, and Joshua Johns have been named in the BNP World Team Cup squad’s junior team.
The Quad event features LLTC’s James Shaw, while a former member of LTTC, Anthony Cotterill, joins Shaw in the Quad squad.
Loughborough LTC and International Wheelchair Coach Martyn Whait is the non-playing Captain of the Men’s Squad.
Breakwell’s impressive the National School
He said: “All credit to the players for turning in the performances to achieve selection for this top-level event.
“It also reflects well on Loughborough Lawn Tennis Club to have so many squad members with club links, and we at Loughborough appreciate just what a growing sport wheelchair tennis is. Here’s to a successful week”.
Cain Berry, LTA’s Performance Support Lead and World Team Cup Team Lead, said: “We’re pleased to announce the squad for this year’s World Team Cup, and we have a really exciting mixture of youth and experience from our performance pathway among the teams this year.
“Our track record in this competition speaks for itself, and we can’t wait to get out to Sardinia and hopefully continue that success.”
INCREASING biodiversity and protecting the environment are not topics that you normally associate with the well-manicured fairways and greens of golf clubs.
However, it was exactly these two topics that were discussed at a conference held at Longcliffe Golf Club on Friday, September 17.
The conference was attended by representatives from 11 golf clubs from across Leicestershire and representatives from England Golf, The Leicestershire and Rutland Wild Life Trust and the Hawk and Owl Trust.
Having heard a presentation given by Tim Graham from the Wildlife Trust, the representatives had a general discussion about how their clubs could protect and increase biodiversity and do more to protect the local environment at their own clubs. It was clear from the discussions that the clubs were all at various stages of implementing a greener golf plan, but were keen to learn from each other’s experiences and were encouraged by what they heard from Tim Graham and from the representative from England Golf, who are very much behind the drive for greener golf.
The average golf club occupies about 111 acres of land and not all of this land is used to play golf on, so, it makes perfect sense to use this “non-golf” land to assist the recovery of plants, insects, birds and mammals.
Working with their green keepers the clubs will be endeavouring to reduce the amount of chemicals used on the course, better manage water on the course and allow the undergrowth to grow naturally. Working with their clubs’ management they will be endeavouring to use less energy in the clubhouse, eradicate single-use plastic from their clubs and think more carefully about waste and recycling. At the end of the meeting, everyone agreed that they would welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with other clubs and agencies and that they would also welcome another meeting next year to compare notes and see what progress had been made.