With Wimbledon 2025 starting today, The Peter Harrison Centre is proud to share the latest impact of our wheelchair tennis research on grass courts. Professor Vicky Tolfrey and Dr Thomas Rietveld have established strong partnerships with the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC), Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), RGK Wheelchairs and Sheen Parasport.
In the last years, there have been a lack of research into player health and performance coupled with concerns about potential damage to grass courts – restricting the range of tournaments at which wheelchair tennis can feature.
The Peter Harrison Centre is delighted to share that our research findings demonstrate that – with specific modifications to wheelchair configuration – wheelchair tennis can be safely played on grass without undue damage to the surface.
The AELTC has added our guidance to the Grand Slam Rule Book 2025. Mark Bullock will be completing chair checks for the first time in the history of the event. This would be like able-bodied players being checked for their shoes used on court.
The dissemination of our findings and on-going partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) mean that British players are configuring their chairs for hard, clay and now – for the first time – grass court tournaments.
We are sharing a series of videos related to our recent work around wheelchair tennis on grass courts. This collaboration shows the centre's commitment to advancing research and education in wheelchair tennis.
The full case-study can be accessed via the case study page of Loughborough University: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/internal/research-innovation-support/accelerator/case-studies/wheelchair-tennis/