Alfie Hewett & Gordon Reid make finals at Japan Open; Three Brits claim doubles titles
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Catch up on the latest from Britain's tennis stars after a week that saw ITF Super Series finalists, three doubles champions and a big result in the Billie Jean King Cup.
Hewett & Gordon finalists in Japan
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid both enjoyed strong weeks at the ITF Super Series Japan Open, reaching finals in the singles and doubles.
Hewett has made the final of all seven singles tournaments he’s played this season and once again faced off against home favourite Tokito Oda in the final.
Despite fighting back in the second set, Hewett eventually lost 6-1, 7-6(5) to finish runner-up.
In the men’s doubles, Hewett and Reid were also defeated in the final to Oda and fellow Japanese partner Takuya Miki 6-4, 2-6, 10-6.
British No.1 Lucy Shuker also made the semi-final of the women’s doubles with France’s Charlotte Fairbank.
Patten & Crawford champions on Challenger Tour
Kicking off a triage of British doubles champions last week was Henry Patten, who lifted the Madrid Challenger title with Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara.
Backing up their trophy at the Grand Prix Hassan II just a week before, Patten and Heliovaara continued the unbeaten start to their partnership in the Spanish capital – finishing with a 7-5, 7-6(1) win over Guido Andreozzi and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela in the final.
Patten has now reached the final in three of his last four events, as well as a semi-final at the Girona Challenger last month.
This is the 12th ATP Challenger title in the British stars career, having previous broken the record for the most in a season alongside Julian Cash in 2022 (10).
Over in the USA, 24-year-old Oliver Crawford won his first title of the season at the Sarasota Challenger.
Crawford and partner Tristan Boyer came from a set down to win an epic semi-final against Evan King and Mitchell Krugger 3-6, 6-4, 14-12, before moving on to beat Etan Quinn and Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-2 to lift the title.
The University of Florida alumni switched nationalities to represent Great Britain ahead of the Australian Open this year.
Jones goes back-to-back in Egypt
On the ITF Tour, Britain’s Ben Jones won the doubles event at the M25 Sharm ElSheikh with Switzerland’s Jakub Paul.
Top seeds Jones and Paul defeated all-British team Hamish Stewart and Harry Wendelken in the final 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.
This was Jones and Paul’s second consecutive title at the ITF event in Egypt – extending their unbeaten run to eight matches.
25-year-old Jones has now won 15 ITF doubles events in his career.
There were also strong British performances at the M15 Monastir, where Stuart Parker finished runner-up in the singles against Lukas Pokorny 7-5, 6-1.
James Davis and Giles Hussey also reached the doubles final but were able to play the championship match.
Brits qualify for Billie Jean King Cup Finals
In case you missed it over the weekend, the Lexus GB Billie Jean King Cup team have qualified for the Finals in Seville later this year after beating France 3-1 on the clay at Le Chaudron.
Emma Raducanu starred across the weekend with two impressive comeback wins over former world No.4 Caroline Garcia and cay court specialist Diane Parry.
The 21-year-old defeated Garcia 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to go into day two with the scores level at 1-1, before rescuing a break deficit in the deciding set against Parry to close out the tie with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) win.
Meanwhile British No.1 Katie Boulter took down world No.44 Clara Burel in only her second tour-level match on clay 7-5, 6-0.
"I'm still in a bit of disbelief,” Captain Anne Keothavong said. “The performances today from Katie and Emma were just incredible, they should be so proud of themselves.”
"I'm pleased with not just their performances today but the whole team - it really has been a team effort."
They join Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and USA in the Finals
