Scotwatch: Titles for Murray and Lumsden as Fearnley enjoys BIG 12 glory

Jamie Murray and partner Michael Venus beat Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Francisco Cabral 7-5 6-2 to win the ATP 250 event in Banja Luka.

For Murray, it was his 29th career title and second with Venus, and saw the pair move up to eleventh in the race for eight places at the ATP Finals in Turin.

Another champion was Maia Lumsden, who sealed a convincing win at the W25 Nottingham with partner Naiktha Baines by beating Rutuja Bhosale and Ankita Raina 6-1 6-4.

The pair didn’t drop a set during the tournament, with the win propelling Lumsden to a career-high doubles ranking of 171 ahead of a trip to France, where she’ll play this week.

Elsewhere, Ali Collins came close to her third title of the year at the W60 Bellinzona, in Switzerland, as she also reached a new career high ranking, of 114.

Collins and partner Freya Christie lost out in the final 6-3 6-7(9) 5-10 to Conny Perrin and Anna Siskova in their first clay court event of the season.

Gordon Reid, meanwhile, was in action at the ITF Super Series in Lizka, Japan, where he reached the quarter-finals of singles before losing out to world number five Ruben Spaargaren 0-6 6-3 3-6.

Reid went one step further in the doubles with Belgian partner Joachim Gerard, where they were beaten by Japan’s Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.

BIG 12 champions

Jacob Fearnley and Texas Christian University were crowned BIG 12 Champions in Kansas on Sunday.

Fearnley and teammate Luc Fomba helped clinch the doubles point 7-6 to give TCU an early lead in their 4-1 win over top-ranked University of Texas.

TCU are celebrating their first BIG 12 Championship since 2017, when Cameron Norrie led their title charge.

NPP round-up

Anna Brogan reached the singles quarter-finals in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, before falling to Romania’s Elena-Teodora Cadar 6-4 6-4.

Hamish Stewart continued his run of form at Nottingham M25, where he qualified and won his first round against sixth seed and ATP number 473 August Holmgren 7-6 7-5, before coming up short against Daniel Little 6-7 3-6 in the round of 16.

Conference contenders

Jamie Connel featured for Florida State University as they upset 14-ranked University of North Carolina at the ACC Championships.

Connel picked up a win at number six singles 7-6 6-2, and scored the only point for FSU in their semi-final loss to University of Virginia (ranked eight) with a 6-4 6-2 win over Mans Dahlberg.

Connor Thomson gained singles and doubles wins for South Carolina’s Gamecocks at the SEC Championships against Texas A&M, but the team fell 4-2.

Oluwadare takes advantage of wildcard

Hephzibah Oluwadare made the most of her main draw wildcard at Nottingham W25 as she gained her first ITF pro circuit main draw win, beating France’s Diana Martynov 6-2 6-2, before losing out 6-1 6-3 to eventual tournament winner Arina Rodionova. 

9U County finals

West of Scotland had girls and boys teams flying the Scottish flag in Nottingham over the weekend at the 9U 2023 North Area Finals captained by Jennifer Steel.

The boys - James Huang, Louis Taylor, Ben Scott, Alec Brodie, and Oscar Cook - placed third overall behind Warwickshire and Yorkshire after wins over Northumberland and Cambridgeshire.

The girls team finished fourth behind Cambridgeshire, Cheshire and Lancashire, and  beat Hertfordshire & Worcestershire. The team was made up of Carrie Kerr, Lily Smith, Ava Steel, Phoebe Castledine and Abbie Smith.