September 2026 - Newsletter

Greetings from our President Dame Elaine Paige

Hello everyone,

What a summer it’s been for the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust!

From an unforgettable Wimbledon moment for 10-year-old Leo Charlesworth-Mark to celebrating GB success on court, it’s been fantastic to see disability tennis continuing to grow and inspire. Leo represented DMTT at Wimbledon, performing the coin toss at the Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Singles Final - a wonderful moment in his amazing journey including the added highlight for him of meeting the Royals! I also loved being at The Championships too, welcoming our wonderful supporters and championing DMTT and disability tennis on Radio Wimbledon.

A huge thank you to all our brilliant supporters and fundraisers especially the East India Club, who raised an incredible £12,000+ for DMTT. We’ve launched our new Patrons Scheme, creating a valuable source of income to help us support even more disabled people to enjoy tennis. I hope many of you will join us and sign up.

I’m thrilled to say our very own Sue Wolstenholme OBE and Geraint Richards were recognised among the British pioneers and contributors by the World Tennis Wheelchair Hall of Champions and my congratulations also to Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett on their seventh Wimbledon doubles title together, taking their extraordinary Grand Slam tally to 25!

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who continues to support the Trust helping us give even more disabled people the opportunity to discover, enjoy and thrive through tennis.

With love,

Elaine's website

Wimbledon coin toss

We were incredibly honoured to be selected by the Wimbledon Foundation to once again nominate a young player for one of Wimbledon’s most prestigious traditions: performing the pre-match coin toss at the Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Singles Final.

Leo Charlesworth-Mark, aged 10, was selected because of his talent, determination and positive attitude both on and off the tennis court. He was born with sacral agenesis, a rare condition affecting the lower spine and legs, and began playing wheelchair tennis around two years ago. DMTT supported him with a grant in 2024, and he has since progressed to the LTA Under-14 National Age Group Programme, which supports promising young wheelchair tennis players.

In 2026 we celebrate 50 years of wheelchair tennis, making Leo's involvement especially meaningful. His appearance represented not just his own journey, but also the wider growth of wheelchair and disability tennis. Leo's story reflects exactly what our charity aims to achieve: helping disabled people access tennis and showing how the sport can build confidence, opportunity and ambition. An extra-special Wimbledon moment was when Leo enjoyed a surprise hit with British tennis star Jack Draper before The Championships, helping make the experience even more memorable. You can watch Leo’s story here.

Patrons Scheme

We are excited to announce details of our new Patrons Scheme

The purpose of introducing a Patrons Scheme is to seek regular annual income for the Trust. We are a small charity and although we have been fortunate to identify new funding streams in recent years, these cannot be guaranteed. It is therefore important for us to identify additional areas of income in order for our work to continue at its current level and to meet the increased demand for grant aid. By supporting our Patrons Scheme, you will be providing the DMTT with a guaranteed annual income and so enabling us to continue and to expand our work.

Eastbourne honours

On June 25, a special ceremony took place during the Lexus Eastbourne Open at Devonshire Park to celebrate the British pioneers inducted into the World Tennis Wheelchair Hall of Champions. Launched in 2026 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of wheelchair tennis (founded by Brad Parks in 1976), the Hall of Champions honours the players, coaches, administrators, and organizations who shaped the sport into a global Paralympic and Grand Slam staple. We were so proud that two members of DMTT were listed as key British Honourees & Contributors:

• Sue Wolstenholme OBE: Our Chairman and long-time advocate for disability sports.
• Geraint Richards: One of our Trustees and a key figure in high-performance wheelchair tennis.

Also honoured were Mark Bullock, Martin McElhatton OBE, Stuart Wilkinson, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), Jordanne Whiley and Peter Norfolk OBE

Recreational Wheelchair Tennis Doubles

Earlier this month, seven-year-old Lorena held a bake sale to raise funds for DMTT while her mum took part in her club’s monthly social tournament. Lorena raised an amazing £70! If your club is looking for a charity to support through an event or fundraising activity, why not follow the wonderful example set by one of our youngest fundraisers? Imagine if just 10 clubs chose DMTT and raised £100 each — that would generate £1,000, making a huge difference to a small charity like ours and helping us continue the work we do.

Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. Please get in touch if you’d like to support DMTT or would like to find out more about fundraising for us. 

On that subject, does your employer offer a matched-funding or matched-giving scheme for charities? Many UK employers have schemes that will match money raised by their employees for a registered charity — sometimes pound-for-pound — although the amount and eligibility criteria vary from company to company. We recently had a member of a Tennis Club Committee who helped with a fundraising event for DMTT. As part of his employer’s charitable giving scheme, he applied for funding in recognition of his fundraising efforts and was delighted to receive a substantial additional donation to DMTT.

We know that several employers offer similar opportunities, but many people simply don’t realise that these schemes exist. So, before organising your next fundraising event, it’s worth asking your employer if they offer funding to support employees’ charity fundraising. It could mean that the money raised by your club goes even further — potentially turning a £100 fundraising effort into £200 for DMTT, at no additional cost to you or your club.

And if your employer doesn’t currently have a formal scheme, it may still be worth asking whether they would consider supporting your fundraising. Companies of all sizes can choose to introduce matched-giving initiatives as part of their community or corporate social responsibility programmes.

So, if you’re involved in a club, committee or fundraising event, why not ask the question? Your employer could help you make an even bigger difference to DMTT.

East India Club Dinner

On the subject of fundraisers, we were delighted to be chosen as the beneficiary by  the East India Club  for their ‘Wimbledon Dinner’ which was held on 26 June. This was a sell out at 80 people and for the second year was again a great success.  Our VP Marcus Buckland did his usual fantastic job on the fundraising side with the auction and also interviewing special guests Roger Taylor and Miles Maclagan. Over £12,000 was raised for the DMTT and we wish to offer special thanks to Hassan Morrad, Jonathon Dawes and all the Tennis Committee for organising this wonderful event.

Recreational Doubles Wheelchair Tennis event

We hosted another fantastic Recreational Wheelchair Tennis Doubles Event in May at Oxstalls Sports Park in Gloucester. We had a full draw and players had a great time supporting each other on court as well as off court, especially when we all went for a lovely meal at the local pub. Stewart Flisher took some wonderful photos of the event which can be viewed here on our Facebook page. We may need to move this event to later in the year in 2027 so please keep your eyes peeled for more information!

GB Players on the world stage

It’s been really busy for our Team GB disability tennis players!! Most recently, the World Blind Tennis Championships were held in Lithuania at the end of August. Medals came for GB players Naqi Rizvi, Tracy Compton, Yvette Priestley, Lucas McClay, Ivan Rodríguez Deb and Ewan Hayward with Great Britain coming an overall second to Australia.

In July the World Deaf Tennis Championships were held in Grenoble and Great Britain finished an overall 4^th, represented by Ethan Carter, Jack Clifton, Esah Hyatt and Lewis Fletcher.

Great Britain had an excellent 2026 Parastanding Tennis World Championships in Torino, particularly through Matt Grover. Matt successfully defended his World Championship title, beating Brazil's Aurio Fortunato in the PST2 final. The British pairing of Matt Grover and Ross Cudmore, who were defending champions, were beaten by Alex Hunt (New Zealand) and Adam Hills (Australia), who took the world title in the Doubles. Georgia Routledge also produced an impressive performance during the championships finishing her category second. Nearly 100 competitors from more than 30 countries competed showing the growth and popularity of Parastanding tennis.

The 2026 Virtus European Summer Games / Virtus Tennis Championships for players with learning disabilities and Autism took place in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in July 2026. Great Britain once again did extremely well with Fabrice Higgins winning gold in the II1 World Championship event, and also won the doubles with Oliver Beadle. Anna McBride won the Singles as well as mixed doubles alongside Fabrice. You can read about how all the players did here. 

And this is all on top of the wonderful success so many of our Wheelchair Tennis players have had on the world tour, especially Gordon and Alfie winning their 7^th Wimbledon Doubles title this year which was also their 25^th Grand Slam title!!