British doubles titles keep coming: Barnett, Nicholls, Murray, Patten and Cash all lift landmark trophies
• 3 MINUTE READ
Catch up on the best results from the Brits last week as the doubles titles keep rolling on the WTA, ATP and ITF tours.
Doubles delight in Granby
We begin in Canada, where British doubles duo Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls won the first WTA title of their careers in Granby.
Barnett and Nicholls overcame fellow Brit Harriet Dart and her partner Rosalie Van der Hoek in the final, battling from a set down to win 5-7, 6-3, 10-1.
The Brits showed incredible fight throughout the tournament, on their way to a debut victory, including a 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 10-8 win against fourth seeds Nadiya Kichenok and Tereza Mihalikova in the quarter-finals.
Their maiden title means that Barnett becomes the new British No.1 in women’s doubles – rising to world No.69 – while Nicholls jumps 16 places to a new career high at world No.72. It’s the icing on the cake for a doubles team who have earned stunning results this season, including their first W100 and W60 titles in Grodzisk Mazowiecki and Bellinzona.
There was further British success for the Brits in Granby as seeds Henry Patten and Julian Cash won their third ATP Challenger trophy of the season.
Cash and Patten only dropped one set all week as they rounded off a strong tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over third seeds Jonathan Eysseric and Artem Sitak in the final.
Both Patten and Cash continue to close in on the ATP doubles top 100, with Patten jumping 13 places to 127 and Cash reaching world No.132.
Murray returns to winning ways
Jamie Murray is finding form at the perfect time heading into the US Open this week, having joined up with Australia’s Matthew Ebden to lift his first title of the season at the Winston-Salem Open.
Murray and Ebden defeated Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 6-4, 6-2 in the final to seal the trophy in only their first event together. The Winston-Salem Open title takes Murray’s pro title tally to 50.
The third seeds got off to a strong start in Winston-Salem with a hard-fought victory against Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, before edging past Robert Galloway and Alex Lawson 6-4, 3-6, 10-6. The British, Australian duo saved their most dominant performance for the semi-finals as they took down Simone Bolelli and Marcelo Melo 7-6(2), 6-2.
"I’m really happy to win a title," said Murray, holding his first trophy of 2022. "I think the level is so high on the Tour these days, it's not easy to win.
"For me it was like, come here, play with Matt, a great partner, enjoy the week, see what we get out of it. We managed to go all the way and got a trophy over our heads."
Brits perform in Roehampton
On home soil, it was a brilliant week for Britain’s Giles Hussey at the $25k ITF World Tennis Tour event in Roehampton. Hussey finished champion in the men’s doubles and runner-up in the singles for the first time.
Hussey and Joe Tyler upset second seeds Arthur Fery and Mark Whitehouse 7-5, 6-3 to win their first M25 doubles title, and the first pro title of Tyler’s career. However, in the singles, Hussey’s run came to an end against France’s former top 100 player, Antoine Hoang, 6-4, 6-4.
In the women’s draw, wild card Marni Banks had a breakthrough week in Roehampton, coming from a set down in both the quarter-final and semi-final to make her first W25 final, but eventually lost to top seed Goa Xinyu 6-1, 6-0.
Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden continued their doubles form but finished runners-up this time around, losing out to one seeds, Rutuja Bhosale and Erika Sema 4-6, 6-3, 11-9.
More ITF success for British stars
In other ITF events, 23-year-old Alisha Reayer won her first title at the W15 Cancun doubles title with Camila Romero after taking down second seeds Noel Saidenova and Jante Tilbuerger 6-3, 7-6(3).
Meanwhile Anna Brogan picked up a career best ranking scalp against Nefisa Berberovic on her way to the W25 Vigo final, but finished runner-up to world No.224 Antonia Ruzic.
