Brits star in Brisbane as Julian Cash & Lloyd Glasspool finish runners-up & Alfie Hewett claims first title of 2026

Impressive weeks for Cash, Glasspool, Kartal & Jones

Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool picked up where they left off in the 2025 season by reaching the final of their first event of the year in Brisbane.

The No.1 doubles team in the world won seven titles last season, but narrowly missed out in Brisbane, losing to third seeds Francisco Cabral and Lucas Miedler 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in the final.

Cash and Glasspool will now turn their attention to the Australian Open where they come in as one of the title favourites. Last year they won their first Gand Slam at Wimbledon – becoming the first all-British pair to clinch the title since 1936.

On the WTA Tour, Sonay Kartal and Francesca Jones had solid runs to the quarter-finals at the WTA 250 Auckland.

Kartal knocked out sixth seed Janice Tjen in the first round before thrashing Germany’s Ella Siedel. In the quarter-finals, Kartal had the chance to serve for the match against top seed and eventual champion Elina Svitolina but eventually lost 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(5).

Meanwhile, Jones got her first top 20 win against Emma Navarro 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in the first round, but was forced to retire during her quarter-final against Xinyu Wang.

Hewett makes title-winning start to 2026

Alfie Hewett made a title-winning seasonal debut on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour for the third time since 2022 after securing three straight sets wins over fellow top 10 opponents to take the new men’s 500 wheelchair singles draw at the Brisbane International.

After a 6-3, 6-2 win over world No.9 Daniel Caverzaschi, Hewett led fellow Brit Gordon Reid 6-2 in their semi-final before Reid retired at the end of the opening set.

World No.2 and top seed Hewett wrapped up the title after needing just 65 minutes to beat Martin de la Puente 6-1, 6-3 in the final for his second win over a Spanish opponent in three days.

With Hewett and Reid having won their opening doubles match of the season against De la Puente and Australia’s Anderson Parker 4-6, 6-2, 10-5, Reid’s subsequent retirement from his singles semi-final also signalled the end of Hewett and Reid’s doubles campaign and they gave a walkover to fellow finalists Caverzaschi and Ruben Spaargaren.

Great Britain show fight at United Cup

Great Britain were knocked out in the Group Stage of the United Cup, after finishing second to Greece in Group E.

The Brits got off to a strong start as Billy Harris beat Shintaro Mochizuki 7-6(4), 6-3 before Olivia Nicholls and Neal Skupski sealed a deciding mixed doubles rubber against Nao Hibino and Yasutaka Uchiyama to claim a 2-1 win over Japan.

That set up a group-decider against a strong Greek team. Harris put up an impressive fight against former Australian open and Roland Garros runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas but lost 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4).

Then Emma Raducanu was beaten in her first match of the season by former world No.3 Maria Sakkari 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Despite winning the final mixed doubles match, the Brits were unable to qualify as one of the best performing runners-up and missed out on their place in the quarter-finals.

British finalists in Nottingham

Last week saw the start of the LTA Performance Competitions Calendar with the Lexus Nottingham Challenger with British finalists in both singles and doubles.

Johannus Monday got his season up-and-running with four straight wins over Lui Maxted, Giles Hussey, Tom Gentzsch and former world No.39 Mikhail Kukushkin to book his place in the final.

In the final, Monday had two match points in the third set but eventually lost to second seed Clement Chidekh 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(5).

Monday has now made the semi-final or better at four of his last five ATP Challenger Tour events.

In the doubles, Charles Broom and David Stevenson were crowned champions, marking a dream start to 2026.

The all-British team beat Milos Karol and Daniel Masur in the final 6-2, 7-6(5) to win their first title together since 2024.

Gill & Rajecki claim ITF titles

On the ITF World Tennis Tour, Felix Gill picked up the highest result of the week, taking home the M25 Antalya title in Turkey.

Gill won his fifth title at $25k level after beating Romania’s Filip Cristian Jianu 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 in the final.

The young Brit has won three of his last four tournaments on the clay in Antalya.

23-year-old Amelia Rajecki rounded off the British title winners for the week at the W15 Oslo.

Rajecki and doubles partner Katarina Kuzmova beat Matylda Burylo and Ann Akasha Ceuca 6-4, 6-2 to mark the Brit’s ninth career doubles trophy.