Brits star in Cincinnati, doubles Challenger champions & wheelchair titles from Lithuania
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Catch up on all the latest from the British tennis stars including strong runs in Cincinnati, a first ATP Challenger title and trophies in Aldershot and Lithuania.
Draper, Dart & Murray shine at Cincinnati Open
The Brits put in some impressive performances in the ATP and WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open last week in their final preparations for the US Open.
Jack Draper reached his first Masters quarter-final of the season with comeback victories against ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 and world No.19 Felix Auger-Aliassime 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
However, the 22-year-old Brit lost out to Danish star Holger Rune 6-4, 6-2 in the final eight.
There was more success in the doubles – Harriet Dart made her first WTA 1000 doubles semi-final with Australia’s Ellen Perez, while Jamie Murray and Ivan Dodig also featured in the final four of the men’s doubles.
Dart and Perez knocked out second seeds Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens in the second round en route to the semis, where they eventually bowed out to third seeds Asia Muhammad and Erin Routliffe 7-6(5), 6-3.
Murray and Dodig made the semi-finals in their first event together since 2021 – losing a close battle with Roland Garros champions Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 10-5.
Broom & Stevenson take home Challenger title
Charles Broom and David Stevenson led the champions on tour this week in capturing their first title together at the Grodzisk Mazowiecki Challenger in Poland.
Third seeds Broom and Stevenson won all three of their opening matches in deciding set tie-breaks before beating fourth seeds Daniel Cukierman and Johannes Ingildsen in the final 6-3, 7-6(3).
It marks Broom’s second ATP Challenger doubles title of the season and of his career and a first for 25-year-old Stevenson.
All British winners in Aldershot
It was a clean sweep of British winners at the Lexus GB Pro Series Aldershot, including standout results for 16-year-old Mimi Xu and Jack Pinnington Jones.
Xu – who is supported by our Pro Scholarship Programme, presented by Lexus – won the biggest title of her career so far in the W35 event, defeating American Haley Giavara 6-4, 6-1 in the final.
The young Brit also clinched the doubles crown with fellow countrywoman Naiktha Bains as the duo beat Punnin Kovapitukted and Akiko Omae 6-4, 6-3.
Texas Christian University tennis star Pinnington Jones wrapped up his fifth career title in the men’s singles.
Pinnington Jones beat former junior Wimbledon champion Henry Searle, Johannus Monday and third seed Blake Mott before knocking out Murphy Cassone in the final 6-0, 7-6(3).
Finally, in the men’s doubles, James Davis and Matthew Summers took home the trophy having saved match point against Masamichi Imamura and Naoki Tajima to win 4-6, 6-3, 12-10.
Bishop, Cox & Johns win wheelchair tennis titles
British wheelchair players secured a hat-trick of titles at the Lithuanian Open as Ruby Bishop retained the women’s singles title, Oliver Cox won the quad singles title and Joshua Johns shared in the men’s doubles title.
Top seed Bishop dropped just seven games as she earned her third career singles title and her first since winning last year’s Lithuanian Open, beating Latvia’s Diana Nikiforova in the final as she focused solely on singles competition.
Cox also contested just the quad singles draw as he gained his first singles title overseas. Last year’s Abingdon Futures champion dropped just six games in four round-robin matches, beating runner-up Serdar Antac of Turkey 6-3, 6-2.
Johns, still one half of the reigning US Open boy’s wheelchair doubles, enjoyed his best week of 2024 to date as he partnered Poland’s Kamil Fabisiak for the first time and the top seeds made it a winning tournament debut together.
However, they had to battle hard in a semi-final that featured two Brits, Johns and Fabisiak eventually defeating Ruben Harris and Austria’s Maximilian Taucher, the reigning French Open boys’ doubles champions 6-4, 1-6, 10-3 after a deciding match tie-break. The final proved much more straight forward after a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Belgium’s Alexander Lantermann and Sweden’s Oscar Tarantino.
Johns also reached the final of the singles, however, a second title eluded him as top seed Fabisiak lifted the trophy after another three-set match that ended 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
