Paul reigns at Queen’s; Putintseva battles to first WTA title in three years

At The Queen’s Club, Draper continued his strong form and knocked out reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. It’s the only time Alcaraz has lost on grass in two years.

However, Draper would lose out to eventual champion Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals.

He wasn’t the only Brit in the quarter-finals however, as 29-year-old Harris reached the final eight at an ATP 500 event for the first time beating world No.32 Tomas Martin Etcheverry and France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard along the way.

Paul played phenomenal tennis all week – only dropping one set (to Draper) en route to his maiden grass court title. The American overcame Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the championship-decider 6-1, 7-6(8) to etch his name in the history books.

He’s the ninth player from USA in history to lift the title, alongside big names such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andy Roddick.

In the doubles, Neal Skupski got his hands on the title for the first time in his career with New Zealand’s Michael Venus.

In what was the start of an incredible grass court run, the doubles duo defeated Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 in the final.

Over in Birmingham, it was Yulia Putintseva who became the latest player to lift the Maud Watson trophy.

Competing in her first WTA singles final since 2021, the Kazakh star defeated Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 7-6(8) to become the newest Rothesay Classic Birmingham champion – and first from her country.

Putintseva would go on to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, where she knocked out world No.1 Iga Swiatek.

The then world No.1 and No.3 in doubles, Elise Mertens and Su-Wei Hsieh, were crowned doubles champions in Birmingham after a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Miyu Kato and Shuai Zhang.

Up in Yorkshire it was top week for former world No.7 David Goffin, who clinched his 21^st career singles trophy at the Lexus Ilkley Trophy with a dominant 6-4, 6-2 victory over Harold Mayot, while Canadian Rebecca Marino won her joint-best title in the W100 singles event.

Kasatkina & Fritz enjoy winning returns to the South coast

There were more British performances to celebrate at the Rothesay International Eastbourne during its 50-year anniversary – with three Brits in the women’s singles quarter-finals (Boulter, Dart and Raducanu) and then Harris making his third semi-final of the grass court season in the men’s draw.

It was 27-year-old Daria Kasatkina who took home in WTA 500 title in a highly competitive draw.

Having finished runner-up the year before, Kastakina sealed her first title in two years after knocking out Raducanu, future Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini and then 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in the final 6-3, 6-4.

Kasatkina came into the tournament on a five-match losing streak before going on an impressive run to a seventh career tour-level title.

USA’s Taylor Fritz has dominated the men’s singles event at the Rothesay International Eastbourne in recent times and he made it three titles in the last five events, having previously won in 2019 and 2022.

Top seed Fritz beat Australian qualifier Max Purcell in the final 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour.

Skupski and Venus made it back-to-back titles on the grass in Eastbourne – coming from behind to win two tie-breaks and edge out Australian duo John Peers and Matthew Ebden 4-6, 7-6(2), 11-9.

In the women’s doubles final, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok battled past Nottingham champions Routliffe and Dabrowski 5-7, 7-6(2), 10-8.

There was plenty more to celebrate in the wheelchair events as well, where five Brits won titles.

Alfie Hewett defeated Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez 7-6(5), 6-3 in the men’s singles final, before teaming up with Gordon Reid to clinch their 50^th doubles title together as a team.

Lucy Shuker won her first grass court title in the women’s doubles alongside partner Jiske Griffioen, while British team Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade beat Heath Davidson and Ahmet Kaplan 7-6(3), 6-3 in the quad doubles final.

Lexus British Open Roehampton debuts on grass

The Lexus British Open Roehampton wheelchair tennis event came to the National Tennis Centre this year for the first edition of the event on grass.

In the men’s singles, Hewett and Fernandez were on track for another final meeting in back-to-back weeks, before the Brit was forced to withdraw from the championship match – meaning that the Argentinian was crowned champion.

Japan’s Yui Kamiji won the women’s singles event – beating Diede de Groot for only the second time since February 2021 7-5, 6-3 to get her hands on a third British Open title.

There was also victory for Niels Vink in the quad singles, as he beat compatriot Sam Schroder 6-1, 6-1 to complete his hat-trick at the British Open.

Patten, Hewett & Reid clinch Wimbledon titles

Wimbledon never fails to deliver on exciting stories, drama and unbelievable performances.

What a fortnight it was again for Spain’s Alcaraz who successfully defended his Wimbledon men’s singles title, just weeks after capturing the French Open. He beat seven-time champion Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) in the final.

Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova also dominated the headlines with her second Grand Slam title following her 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Italy’s Paolini – becoming the eighth different champion in as many years.

But, there was plenty of storylines from the world of British tennis as well.

Early in week one, we had British No.1 and No.2 clashes in both the men’s and women’s singles events in the second round – the first time it’s ever happened in the same round at an event.

Dart defeated Boulter in a third set tie-break before Norrie took out Draper in straight sets, but unfortunately, both went on to exit in the third round.

That meant it was all over to Raducanu, who equalled her career-best performance at SW19 in making the fourth round, with big wins against Renata Zarazua, Elise Mertens and world No.9 Maria Sakkari.

However, the young Brit came up against an amazing performance from New Zealand qualifier Lulu Sun, who hit 52 winners to beat Raducanu 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

So, it was over to the doubles and the wheelchair events to bring home the titles.

This year’s men’s doubles draw brought about a fairytale ending for Britain’s Henry Patten and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara.

After defeating Skupski and Venus in the semi-finals to reach their first career Grand Slam finals, Patten and Heliovaara did the unthinkable in taking home the Wimbledon title.

In the final on Centre Court, they narrowly beat Aussie duo Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell 6-7(7), 7-6(8), 7-6(9) – making Patten only the third British player to lift the trophy in the Open Era.

Hewett was also out there making history at Wimbledon this year. In his third consecutive singles final, the 26-year-old Briton got himself over the line with a 6-2, 6-3 win over fourth seed Martin De La Puente.

His ninth major singles title also meant that he’s the fourth wheelchair player (men’s, women’s and quad) to complete the career Grand Slam.

"I’m speechless," Hewett said in the post-match speech. "I think today proves that no matter how many times you get knocked down you can get back up again and keep trying.”

He didn’t have much time to celebrate though as later that day he returned with Reid to win the men’s doubles as well – finishing with a 6-4, 7-6(2) win over Tokito Oda and Takuya Miki.

A 21^st title for Hewett and Reid saw them surpass the tally of most Grand Slam doubles titles won by one partnership, overtaking the 20 titles shared by the partnerships of Althea Louise Brough and Margaret Evelyn Du Pont, and Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.

Hewett would later refer to the whole experience as ‘the best day of his life’.

Elsewhere, Lapthorne and Guy Sasson ended the week as quad doubles runners-up and British juniors Mimi Xu and Mika Stojsavljevic also finished runners-up in the Wimbledon girls’ doubles final after narrowly losing out to the second seeds in a championship-deciding tie-break.