New champions, records broken & history made: The story of the 2025 grass court season
• 5 MINUTE READ
The 2025 grass court season has been an incredible ride from start to finish.
The most exciting part of the tennis calendar, this summer has had a bit of everything – new champions, history made, rising stars, upsets everywhere and some familiar favourites taking home titles.
Here, we look back through the British grass court season from the very beginning in Birmingham to its epic conclusion at Wimbledon, highlighting the best moments from the summer of tennis.
Minnen & Virtanen kick-start the grass court season
The start of the grass court season had a new look this year at one of the most historic venues in British tennis.
The Edgbaston Priory Club once again played host to the Lexus Birmingham Open, but for the first time this year as a combined women’s WTA 125 and men’s ATP Challenger 125 event.
The women’s tournament – which has been a main stay of the grass court season since 1982 – was won by Belgium’s Greet Minnen. The 27-year-old lifted the biggest trophy of her year after coming through two matches on finals day – finishing with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Linda Fruhvirtova.
There were more storylines throughout the women’s draw, including British teenager Mimi Xu, who won her first WTA 125 match, beat a top 100 player for the first time – knocking out top seed Alycia Parks – and reached the quarter-final.
In the first-ever grass court men’s event in Birmingham, Finland’s Otto Virtanen came away with the title – his seventh ATP Challenger trophy – thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 win over Colton Smith.
Maria makes history in West London
Arguably the biggest story of the summer was the return of women’s tennis for the first time in over 50 years as part of a fortnight of action at the HSBC Championships.
Many of the world’s best came to compete in West London, including Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the then reigning Wimbledon title winner Barbora Krejcikova and world No.5 Qinwen Zheng as just a few among the star-studded line-up.
A historic event deserved an amazing story, and the HSBC Championships certainly delivered.
On Saturday 7 June, 37-year-old Tatjana Maria arrived at Queen’s to compete in qualifying – by the following Sunday, she left as the first women’s champion in over half a century.
Maria beat world No.14 Karolina Muchova, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and second seed Keys to reach the final, where she defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-4.
She became the oldest player to win a WTA 500 event – the biggest title of her career.
It was a promising week for the Brits as well, with Emma Raducanu making the quarter-finals in addition to wins for Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Heather Watson.
British breakthrough at Ilkley
The name Jack Pinnington Jones may have been relatively new to many British tennis fans coming into this summer, but not anymore.
The 22-year-old Briton – who like Cam Norrie and Jacob Fearnley has been competing for Texas Christian University in the NCAA over the past few years – announced himself at the Lexus Ilkley Open, reaching his first career ATP Challenger final.
Despite his fantastic efforts throughout the week, Pinnington Jones eventually finished runner-up to Australia’s Tristan Schoolkate 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3.
The week helped the young Briton to a Wimbledon main draw wild card – where he got his first Grand Slam win against former top 30 player Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
Rising WTA star Iva Jovic equally impressed in the women’s draw, with the 17-year-old banking her first grass court title with a 6-1, 6-3 final win over defending champion Rebecca Marino.
Amazing Alcaraz extends winning run to the grass
Back in West London for the second week of the HSBC Championships and all eyes were on British No.1 Jack Draper and top seed Carlos Alcaraz, with the world No.2 coming in off the back of winning one of the all-time great Grand Slam finals at Roland Garros.
The early signs were strong for Draper, beating Jenson Brooksby, Alexei Popyrin and Brandon Nakashima to reach the semi-finals for the first time in his career.
However, Draper – who later revealed he had been battling tonsilitis – lost out to Jiri Lehecka in three sets in the final four.
Alcaraz showed very little signs of fatigue aiming to replicate his title run from 2023. Having survived an almost three-and-a-half-hour battle with countryman Jaume Munar, the Spaniard went on to make the final.
In the championship decider, it was Alcaraz who had the winning edge, beating Lehecka 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 victory to lift his second HSBC Championships title. It marks his fourth ATP title on grass – already equalling Rafael Nadal at just 22.
In the doubles, Britain’s Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool backed up their final appearance in Stuttgart by beating Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-6 to become the first all-British pair to win the title in the Open Era.
New champions in Nottingham
The WTA and ATP Challenger tours then moved their attention to the Midlands for the Lexus Nottingham Open.
Britain’s Boulter returned to her home tournament looking to seal a third straight title but this time around, the 28-year-old bowed out in the quarter-final.
It was eventual champion McCartney Kessler of the USA who knocked out the British star, as the world No.30 went on to defeat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska in the final 6-4, 7-5.
In the men’s event, it was former US Open champion and former Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic who stole the headlines – becoming the oldest grass court ATP Challenger title winner with a straight sets win over Shintaro Mochizuki.
Cilic went on to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon just a couple of weeks later.
Joint leaves her mark on the south coast; Fritz at home in Eastbourne
The Lexus Eastbourne Open had a bit of everything this year – a young new star winning the WTA title, a familiar ATP champion and Brits starring in the doubles and wheelchair draws.
This year’s women’s singles final was contested between two of the brightest young talents in the game in Australia’s Maya Joint and Philippines’ Alexandra Eala, in what turned out to be one of the matches of the summer.
19-year-old Joint saved four championship points to claim a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(10) victory and her second tour-level title in as many months.
In the men’s event, USA’s Taylor Fritz continued his dominance on the south coast – adding a fourth men’s singles title in Eastbourne.
Fritz defeated fellow American and tournament lucky loser Brooksby 7-5, 6-1 in an hour and 28 minutes to extend his record for the most men’s singles titles won in Eastbourne.
Elsewhere, Dan Evans backed up his win over world No.12 Frances Tiafoe at Queen's by knocking out second seed and former champion Tommy Paul in Eastbourne.
Cash and Glasspool backed up their Queen’s Club title with another grass court men’s doubles trophy after beating Ariel Behar and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 7-6(5).
Meanwhile, Andy Lapthorne, Greg Slade and Lucy Shuker all featured among the wheelchair title winners – read more.
Hewett & Reid champions once again at the British Open
Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid returned to the Lexus British Open Roehampton aiming to reclaim their title having missed out in 2024 – and the British pairing did just that.
World No.2 Hewett defeated defending champion Gustavo Fernandez 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to claim his third British Open singles title since 2021.
That was then followed by the doubles partnership of Hewett and Reid who dominated Spain’s Martin de la Puente and Ruben Spaargaren of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-2 in the men’s final.
Elsewhere, world No.1 Yui Kamiji took home the women’s singles title and Niels Vink managed to retain the quad singles trophy.
British history at Wimbledon
All eyes then turned to The Championships, Wimbledon for the third Grand Slam event of the season.
With 23 British players in the main draw of the singles for the first time since 1984, it was always destined to be a special one.
In the women’s singles, 23-year-old Kartal was the standout performer, reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career and propelling herself to a new career-high inside the world’s top 50.
Raducanu also impressed and put in a gutsy performance against world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round – one of the matches of the tournament.
On the men’s side, Cam Norrie reached the quarter-final for the second time in his career, with three straight wins on No.1 Court against Frances Tiafoe, Mattia Bellucci and Nicolas Jarry before losing out to two-time defending champion Alcaraz.
World No.1 Jannik Sinner went on to beat Alcaraz in the final, while Iga Swiatek beat Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the women's championship decider. It was a first Wimbledon title for both Sinner and Swiatek.
Cash and Glasspool bagged their first Grand Slam title together and became the first all-British duo to win Wimbledon since 1936.
Joe Salisbury made the mixed doubles final with Brazil’s Luisa Stefani – narrowly missing out on the title.
Hewett finished runner-up in the men’s wheelchair singles in a three-set battle against world No.1 Tokito Oda, and also lost out in the doubles final with Reid.
Xu made the semi-final of the girls’ singles and Oliver Bonding was the runner-up in the boys’ doubles with American Jagger Leach.
