Harriet Dart makes career-best run in Romania, Heather Watson reaches final & doubles titles keep coming
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Catch up with all the latest from a stellar week of British tennis action across the ATP, WTA and ITF tours.
Semis and final run for Dart at the Transylvania Open
Harriet Dart and Heather Watson were the standout performers on the WTA Tour last week, with outstanding singles and doubles runs in Romania and Dubai.
Dart made it through to her first WTA singles semi-final in Cluj-Napoca. The 27-year-old came through two rounds of qualifying before beating Anna Bondar, fifth seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Spain’s Nuria Parrizas-Diaz to make the final four.
However, here she eventually lost out to former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-3.
A career-best run has seen her rise back into the top 100 at world No.92 – joining Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage.
Great Britain now has seven players inside the ATP and WTA top 100 – the most since May 1985.
Dart also enjoyed a brilliant campaign in the doubles – reaching the final alongside Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova.
The duo defeated fellow Brit Olivia Nicholls and Elixane Lechemia in the semi-finals 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-4 but went on to finish runners-up. In the final they lost out to Caty McNally and Asia Muhammad 6-3, 6-4.
Watson makes doubles final in Abu Dhabi
Over in Abu Dhabi, Watson was also a doubles finalist alongside 19-year-old Czech star Linda Noskova.
Watson – who was competing in her second WTA doubles final of the season – would have to settle for the runners-up spot in the end, as the duo lost to Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 7-6(4).
Watson’s impressive form has seen her rise to world No.42 in the WTA doubles rankings.
The 31-year-old also made it through qualifying at the WTA 500 singles event and defeated world No.16 Veronika Kudermetova before exiting in the second round.
Elsewhere on the tours, Neal Skupski and Santiago Gonzalez reached the semi-finals at the Dallas Open, where they lost out to Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson 7-6(4), 6-3.
Christie & Appleton headline ITF doubles success; Clarke reaches M25 final
There was plenty to celebrate over in Grenoble, France last week, with an all-British women’s doubles final at the ITF W75 tournament.
In a close final between the third and fourth seeds, Freya Christie and Emily Appleton got the better of Sarah Beth Grey and Eden Silva 6-3, 1-6, 11-9 to lift the title.
The title marks the biggest of Appleton’s career and Christie’s best since 2022.
On home soil, Joshua Paris enjoyed the best run of the Brits at the Lexus Nottingham Challenger, making the final of the men’s doubles with Antoine Escoffier. The British, French duo finished runners-up to Petr Nouza and Patrik Rikl 6-3, 7-6(3).
Hamish Stewart had an impressive run in the singles – making the quarter-finals in only his first Challenger event.
At the W50 Lexus GB Pro-Series Edgbaston top seeds Lily Miyazaki and Ali Collins came runners-up in the doubles to Belgium’s Magali Kempe and Lara Salden 7-6(6), 6-2.
Jay Clarke’s continued return to form after a long-term injury saw him end the week as runner-up at the M25 Hammamet – losing out to Kamil Majchrzak in the final 6-3, 7-5.
There was another British doubles title over in Egypt last week, as David Stevenson and Emile Hudd clinched the M15 Sharm ElSheikh trophy with a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Marek Gengel and Mark Whitehouse in the final.
This is Stevenson’s third doubles title of the year already and marks Hudd’s fifth in the last 12 months.
