Loading...
Skip to content

Review

The story of the 2024 summer grass court season

Katie Boulter gives a love heart sign after winning her first round match at Wimbledon
Share this article

As we come to the end of another incredible grass court tennis season – we take a look back at the biggest highlights from the last couple of months.

Harris & Van Uytvanck make title-winning starts in Surbiton

The grass court season got underway in South West London at the Lexus Surbiton Trophy, where it was a triumphant return for Belgium's Alison van Uytvanck, winning her second title in three years at the event.

Having missed the previous year’s event with injury, Van Uytvanck came back from a set down to beat former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2.

Meanwhile, in the men’s events, Britain’s Billy Harris got his brilliant grass court season off to a strong start in making the semi-finals, but it was South African Lloyd Harris who took home the title.

Harris beat 22-year-old Swiss star Leandro Riedi 7-6(8), 7-5 in the final to capture his first on grass.

There was British champion in the men’s doubles as Julian Cash and Robert Galloway lifted the trophy with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Colombia’s Nicolas Barrientos and Ecuador’s Diego Hidalgo.

USA’s Emina Bektas and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic also defeated British duo Sarah Beth Grey and Tara Moore in the women’s doubles final.

Boulter goes back-to-back in Nottingham; Fearnley gets his breakthrough

2024-Katie-Boulter-Rothesay-Open-Nottingham-title.jpg

The Rothesay Open Nottingham threw up a host of fun and exciting stories – including yet more British singles champions.

In 2023, Leicester local Katie Boulter won the first WTA title of her career at the Rothesay Open Nottingham and backed it up a year later with another run to the Elena Baltacha trophy.

Boulter had to come through some epic matches – including three-set battles with Harriet Dart and then Emma Raducanu in the semi-final – before closing out with 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against 2016 champion and former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova in the final.

"This is a little bit of deja-vu, I’m not exactly sure if I’m dreaming or if this just happened," she said in her post-match interview.

"I'm very happy with today - I never thought it would happen again. I thought it would be one time in Nottingham, but this one is very special to me."

Meanwhile, the men’s singles was full of breakthrough performances – with three Brits reaching the semi-finals in Harris, Charles Broom and eventual champion and qualifier, Jacob Fearnley.

2024-Jacob-Fearnley-Rothesay-Open-Nottingham-champion.jpg

In the first-ever all-British men’s singles final, Fearnley beat Broom 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win his first ATP Challenger title in only his first tournament.

Fearnley – who won the doubles event in Nottingham the year before – would go on to get a Wimbledon wild card and took a set off seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in a highly competitive match on Centre Court.

Marcus Willis led the British charge in the men’s doubles as he and John Peers emerged champions in their first tournament together, while Dart and Diane Parry lost in the women’s doubles final to US Open title-holders Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe 5-7, 6-3, 11-9 after having championship point.

Elsewhere across the world, British No.1 Jack Draper captured his first ATP title on the grass courts in Stuttgart, where he beat two-time cinch Championships winner Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final.

"I'm really happy to win my first title, it means so much to me,” he said. "There have been a lot of up and down moments over the last few years, but this is a testament to the hard work that I've been putting in."

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.

2024-Tommy-Paul-cinch-Championships-Trophy.jpg

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 21st 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.

2024-Daria-Kasatkina-Eastbourne-Trophy-Head.jpg

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 50th 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.

2024-Lucy-Shuker-Jiske-Griffioen-Rothesay-International-Eastbourne.jpg

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

2024-Harri-Heliovaara-Henry-Patten-Wimbledon-Trophy.jpg

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.”

2024-Alfie-Hewett-Wimbledon-final-celebration.jpg

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 21st 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.

Create a free account to enjoy unlimited reading

  • Access exclusive articles and videos
  • Gain expert advice from top-level coaches
  • Receive newsletters with special promotions, announcements and content
Create an account

or

Already have an account? Log in

Want to learn more about our account options? Explore account options

Cookies on LTA site

We use cookies on our site to ACE your experience, improve the quality of our site and show you content we think you’ll be interested in. Let us know if you agree to cookies or if you’d prefer to manage your own settings.