London-based Naqi Rizvi has risen to the top of the world rankings for blind tennis after only discovering the sport for the first time in 2015 and has called for greater support
The sight of a Londoner at the top of a sport’s world rankings ought to be a cause for celebration, but Naqi Rizvi’s rise through the blind tennis ranks has gone unnoticed by many.
Rizvi, who represents Pakistan but has been based in the UK for close to a decade, became “absolutely hooked” upon being introduced to tennis as an adult in 2016. He was born visually impaired, losing all sight aged seven, but quickly picked up a knack for the game.
Blind or visually impaired tennis is played on a smaller court with a ball which makes noise. Equipment doesn’t come cheap, with players forced to pay their own way, making for an environment which can leave some feeling as though they don’t have a way in.
Everyone has to start somewhere, though, and wheelchair tennis began with obstacles of its own before reaching the point where it is included on the Wimbledon programme. Speaking to Mirror Sport at an event held by tennis charity Young Champs, he lays bare just how challenging things have been – as long as the support received by British men’s number one Jack Draper along the way.
“I think blind tennis still is a less understood sport in some ways,” Rizvi says. “Not many people know about it, so unless there’s organisations that actively promote it… it’s not televised, it’s not really talked about in the media, people generally don’t know about it.
“Wheelchair tennis, for example, started in 1976 if I remember right, and I think it was only about 20 years later that people really started to recognise this is a sport. I’m hoping with blind tennis, because we already have a precedent so it won’t take us long, but sadly we still don’t have much media presence.
“Even for the world games and world championships I played in last year, there was pretty much no media there, so I’m glad we have some here who can shed a bit more light.”
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Draper’s involvement, Rizvi says, was a happy accident. “When we train at the National Tennis Centre sometimes there have been a few players like Jack Draper who have been amazing. Watching us from up on the balcony and going ‘I want to give this a try, it’s something completely new’,” he says
“I think he actually did an Instagram video last October where he talked about blind tennis, but generally we don’t really see much of that, and I hope more of that will happen..”
A video shared by the LTA in September 2023 shows Draper trying his hand at the sport, laying bare the on-court challenges it brings. As Rizvi explains, though, that’s nothing compared to the obstacles players are forced to deal with just to make it there.
“Firstly there needs to be a recognition that there is a sport like this that exists,” he says. “There are people who put in a lot of time and effort and passion behind the game. In the world championships now, and I won it last year, there was no prize money at all. Zero.
“We have to pay to enter, and there’s also other barriers we face as well. We can’t just stay in any cheap hotel – we have to think about how accessible will it be, can I get to the venue easily, especially if you’re in a more unfamiliar place.
“These tennis balls for blind tennis, just by themselves, cost about £8.50 per ball. Incredibly expensive and they’re very flimsy, because they’re not manufactured here, you have to bring them from abroad, so they don’t have a very good shelf life.
“So it ends up being a very expensive sport overall. Group coaching for blind tennis can be tricky as well, because if you have too much noise then you can’t really hear the ball. You often have to rely on one-to-one coaching in a slightly quieter setting as well, so there needs to be recognition and hopefully a bit more research from the mainstream companies, a bit more emphasis on raising the profile of other forms of tennis as well.”
Rizvi has called on big sporting bodies to start banging the drum for his sport, be that the four grand slams, the LTA or anyone else. His work with Young Champs, though, comes following a recognition that accessibility and access can take different forms when tennis is concerned.
Launched in April, Young Champs is a charity providing free coaching to help those from lower-income backgrounds get into tennis. It has targeted 10,000 hours of free coaching through its ‘Project 10K’ initiative, with founder Chris Marshall taking action “Because there is no recognised pathway for a child from a lower income family, or even a working family, to get there.”
Rizvi says he was “pretty much on board immediately” after learning about the work done by the charity, immediately being impressed by children’s eagerness to learn during a session with Young Champs at Larkhall Park in South London. While appreciating that enthusiasim, though, he stresses the need for continued support as he draws parallels with the obstacles faced by blind tennis and those keeping children from lower income backgrounds from taking up tennis in any form.
“I think that’s where the whole idea of intersectionality comes in,” he says. “A lot of the barriers are different, but actually a lot of them are fairly similar.
“You just have to translate them in a different dimension to make it work, but effectively you need a similar solution, and I do hope people can see beyond just that particular characteristic and make it open to everyone, because a lot of the barriers are very similar. Tennis has this perception of being such an elitist sport and I think that’s one of the mental barriers that needs to be broken as well, to say it’s open to anyone and everyone.”
