Olivia Nicholls will play the Hobart International this week despite her rackets getting destroyed by budget airline Jetstar on a flight from Sydney to Tasmania. The 30-year-old is Britain’s highest-ranked female doubles player and reached the semi-finals of the Wimbledon mixed doubles in 2023 alongside Jonny O’Mara.

Nicholls posted an image of her damaged rackets to social media after touching down in Tasmania at the start of the weekend.

And she has now received an apology from the company that failed to protect her prized possessions.

“We have reached out to Ms Nicholls to apologise and offered to refund for costs incurred and provide compensation for the damage,” explained a Jetstar spokesman.

Nicholls has climbed the doubles rankings over the last few seasons and reached the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

She was a quarter-finalist in the doubles at the Cincinnati Open, China Open and Wuhan Open, and also represented her country at the Billie Jean King Cup for the third consecutive year.

Nicholls will play alongside Slovakian ace Tereza Mihalikova at the Hobart International, which is due to get underway on Monday.

But her attendance was thrown into doubt on Saturday after she took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice her anger at the state of her rackets.

“This is unacceptable @JetstarAirways,” she wrote. “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 and Mihalikova will be aiming to reach the latter stages in Tasmania and could even be eyeing up the title.

And discussing her passion for the doubles game during an interview with the LTA website last year, Nicholls explained: “I love playing in a team environment and even more so when I’m representing Great Britain.

“I grew up playing for my county and playing for the Loughborough University team, so I’m used to competing as part of a team – it’s an environment I really thrive and enjoy playing in.”

She then detailed her highlights from 2024 as she added: “There have been so many, it’s tough to pick just one out. Reaching the third round of Wimbledon and US Open this year were definitely up there. Particularly Wimbledon, where I had my friends and family there to support – it was really special.

“Beijing was also a standout for me as I’d never played in China before. We had a good run there and the fans created a great atmosphere to play in.”