British tennis star Olivia Nicholls was left raging after her rackets were “totally destroyed” during a flight. The 30-year-old is the highest-ranked British women’s doubles player in the world, having climbed to No. 39.

Nicholls is set to team up with Slovakian ace Tereza Mihalikova at the Hobart International in Australia, with the tournament getting underway on Monday.

But her preparations were dealt a huge blow just two days before the start of the event.

Nicholls jetted off to Australia ahead of the tournament but wasn’t allowed to carry her rackets onto the airplane as she paid £80 to have them stored away from her.

And when they were eventually returned on the other side of the world, they weren’t in the same condition as they were when the plane had taken off.

Nicholls took to X (formerly Twitter) to post two images of her damaged Babolat rackets. And she fumed at the airline she flew with as she wrote: “This is unacceptable @JetstarAirways. 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 made her WTA Tour debut at the Lyon Open in 2022 and reached the third round of the Wimbledon and US Open women’s doubles this year.

In 2023, she progressed all the way to the Wimbledon mixed doubles semi-finals alongside partner Jonny O'Mara, with the duo exiting the tournament at the hands of eventual champions Mate Pavic and Lyudmyla Kicheno.

The talented ace has also represented Great Britain at the last three editions of the Billie Jean King Cup.

And discussing her career during an interview with the LTA website last year, she explained: “I feel like I’ve been playing very well. I have a great support team in Craig Veal and Tom Kiesel, who’ve really brought out the best in me this year.

“One of the biggest improvements is that I feel confident in my game and I’m clear about my tennis identity on the court. Also, combining with Tereza has worked well and we’ve picked up some great results recently.

“I think I’ve grown a lot [this year]. I’m now in a position where we’re playing the highest level tournaments and being competitive against the best teams in the world. We feel as though we belong here and maybe that wasn’t the case a year ago.”