‘This is unacceptable’ rants British tennis star after racquets snapped and bag battered beyond recognition on flight
A BRITISH tennis star furiously ranted after having her racquets destroyed and bag ripped to shreds on a flight.
Olivia Nicholls, 30, made an internal trip from Sydney to Tasmania to play in this week’s upcoming Hobart International tournament.
But the doubles specialist was left with her equipment utterly wrecked.
World No39 Nicholls, from Norwich, claims she was blocked by budget airline Jetstar from carrying her soft-shell tennis bag and its contents – including three Babolat racquets – into the cabin with her.
Instead, she was forced to check them into the hold and also had to pay £80 to do so.
But when she collected her stuff upon landing in Hobart, she was shocked and appalled to discover what had happened.
Nicholls posted two photos on Twitter showing her three racquets severely damaged with scrapes, scuffs and markings suggesting they had been crushed while out of her sight.
That included one of the frames which was totally snapped on the side and beyond repair.
The images also exposed the terrible condition of the matching blue bag.
A seething Nicholls wrote: “This is unacceptable @JetstarAirways.
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“160AUD to check in because I’m not allowed to take it as carry on, and you deliver my bag like this?
“How is this possible.
“My bag and rackets are totally destroyed.”
Nicholls received plenty of messages of support in the replies.
One said: “Terrible.”
Another wrote: “YEOW!!! So sorry. Really awful!!! And probably zero accountability.”
A third replied: “Disgraceful. Hope you get replacements quickly.”
Tennis stars’ new careers
PLENTY of tennis stars have stayed involved in the sport since retiring.
But others pursued very different careers. Here are some of the best…
- I reached French Open and Wimbledon finals as a teenager but I quit to become a nun
- I won Wimbledon mixed doubles with my sister but got fed up with English weather so now run luxury B&B
- I was tipped for stardom aged 12 but retrained to become high-flying lawyer
- I earned £9m and won French Open before setting up bistro with Brazilian model girlfriend
- I’m last Frenchman to win Roland Garros, now I’m singer with six albums hitting No1 in charts
- I’m former world No1 but quit aged 29 – instead I went on to play professional poker and golf
- I was destined for the top but swapped lobs for labs as award-winning Harvard physicist
A fourth commented: “Sucks, unfortunately airlines do not take care of luggage. Need hard shell to protect content!”
And a final user joked: “Wow it’s not easy to break a racket. They must have really tried hard!”
Nicholls – a former Wimbledon mixed doubles semi-finalist – represented Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup last year and finished the 2024 season as the British No1 doubles star.
She spent Christmas in Perth in Western Australia before flying over to Sydney to play for GB in the United Cup.
The Norfolk star and Charlie Broom teamed up together but lost both of their mixed doubles matches – to Australia on New Year’s Day and Poland on January 2 before her dreaded trip to Tasmania.
Nicholls and partner Tereza Mihalíkova are the top seeds in Hobart and will see a strong run as the perfect preparation before the upcoming Australian Open.