The inaugural British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships was held in 1990 at Bishops Park in Fulham, London, where the tournament remained for two years before moving to Sheffield in 1992. In 1993, the British Open moved to the

Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre, which has been its home ever since. In 2023 the Lexus British Open will mark 30 years of being held at Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Having started its life as a satellite tournament on the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour, by 1995 the esteem in which the tournament was regarded was rewarded when the British Open became a Super Series tournament – one of just two tournaments in the world to have Super Series status, the highest tier of event on the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour in the days before wheelchair tennis became a part of the four majors, at that time.

In two of its first four years in Nottingham (1994 and 1997) the British Open week preceded the World Team Cup, the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event. The British Open and the World Team Cup were both staged in successive weeks at Nottingham Tennis Centre for a third time in 2009.