British Tennis Watch – Week 24

In this long-running series of articles, we will be reviewing all the action in the world of British tennis, from Grand Slams to Juniors.

We’ll be trying to cover all manner of tennis at various different levels, with a focus on British prospects. For now, though, we will be keeping our focus on Singles action.

The article is split into different levels – these levels are based on the number of points available for the winner of each tournament. For example, a tournament at ‘250 Level’ means there are 250 ranking points available for the winning player.

Please let us know if we miss anyone off by emailing me at tennis@p.ublished.com.

Week 24 – 12–18 June 2023

In this week’s edition:

An all British final in Nottingham ends in Boulter triumph.
Andy Murray wins second successive grass-court Challenger title
Rhys Lawlor wins U14 event in Roehampton

ATP Challenger Tour / WTA/ITF Futures Tour

250 Level

TITLE ALERT!

Well! It was an incredible week of British tennis in Nottingham this week, at both the Women’s WTA 250 event and the corresponding Men’s CH175 event, with British champions at both. We’ll focus on the ladies first, as their event was worth slightly more ranking points than the Men’s, and it was an all-British final between Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage after three British women made the semi-finals and made up half of the draw at the quarter-final stage.

In the end, it was Katie Boulter who secured victory over her British counterpart in the final, with Burrage struggling on her second serve, winning less than a quarter of points after she had missed her first serve. Boulter, meanwhile, was extremely solid on serve, facing just two break points throughout the entire match and emerging a 6-3 6-3 winner.

The result adds fuel to the fire of the current battle to be British number one – Burrage was ahead of Boulter going into this match, but Boulter has now leapt to 77th in the rankings, a massive career high for her. However, both players have points to defend over the rest of the grass season, so that ranking may not hold depending on how the rest of June and July pan out.

En route to the final, Boulter defeated two other British hopefuls – former British number one Heather Watson was her semi-final opponent, while Harriet Dart was duly dispatched in the quarters. It was, in general, a brilliant week for British women, with all but one Brit picking up at least one victory in either the main draw or qualifying: Watson and Dart actually came through qualifying to reach the semis and quarters respectively, while Sonay Kartal and Emily Appleton also successfully came through qualies. Eden Silva and Amelia Rajecki also won one match in qualifying, with only Naiktha Bains failing to pick up a win.

175 Level

TITLE ALERT!

Now for the men: Andy Murray won his second successive ATP Challenger title in Nottingham to complete the perfect preparation for his return to Queen’s Club next week and, ultimately, another tilt at the Wimbledon title. Murray’s run to the title was far less fraught with rustiness than his triumph this time last week, as he failed to drop a single set en route to clinching the title, which he won in the final against French qualifier Arthur Cazaux. Murray is now ranked 38th on tour, meaning a decent run at Queen’s (where he has no points to defend) should see him reach his goal of being seeded for this year’s Wimbledon Championships.

There were other Brits involved in Nottingham, too: George Loffhagen, 22, was granted a wildcard into the main draw, and truly made the most of it, reaching the quarter-finals after wins against much higher ranked players in the first and second rounds. Liam Broady, Ryan Peniston, and Arthur Fery all reached the second round, while Jan Choinski was the sole British first round loser.

Daniel Cox, Stuart Parker, Charles Broom, Toby Samuel, Mark Whitehouse, Harry Wendelken, Billy Harris, Giles Hussey, and Johannus Monday all failed to make it out of qualifying.

80 Level

One performance to note here – Tiffany William was entered into qualifying in the United States for the ITF80 across the pond, and won one match before being eliminated just before the main draw.

50 Level

A smattering of Brits were in action at the ITF50 in Guimaraes, Portugal this week, with Katy Dunne leading the way and reaching the semi-finals unseeded. It was an excellent week for Dunne, who eliminated the seventh and fourth seeds in the draw before eventually running into Madison Sieg of the United States, who battled past her in a three-set thriller to reach the final.

Sarah Beth Grey was the only Brit in Portugal not to pick up a win – she lost in the opening round to a Aussie qualifier – but Holly Hutchinson and Matilda Mutavdzic both came through a sparse qualifying draw before also being beaten in the first round proper.

Meanwhile, Bronte Murgett was eliminated in the first round of qualifying at the ITF50 in Colorado.

25 Level

Five out of the six ITF25 events were populated by British men this week: in Denmark, Anton Matusevich made the second round before the Swedish sixth seed battled past him in two tight sets. Toby Martin couldn’t get out of qualifying.

In Spain, Emile Hudd successfully qualified for the main draw and took quite the scalp in the first round, beating Israeli seventh seed Yshai Oliel before elimination in the second round. Hudd wasn’t broken throughout the entire match, and took the only break point available to him in the first set to win 6-3 7-6(2) in a professional-looking victory for the US college student. Ying Hou couldn’t join Hudd in the main draw.

In the USA, Jack Pennington Jones and Aidan McHugh both reached the second round, although once again, McHugh was quite highly seeded and perhaps may have expected to have done better than he did; Daniel Little couldn't get past his first-round opponent, while Matthew Summers couldn’t get out of qualifying.

And finally, in France, neither Nicolas Philibert nor Zach Stephens could make the main draw.

15 Level

Another smattering of British players across the many and varied ITF15s across the globe this week: the best result came in Serbia, where Felix Gill was seeded fifth and made it all the way to the semi-finals of the event in Kursumlijska Banja. He eventually lost 4-6 6-3 6-3 to local qualifier Viktor Jokic, who went on to win the tournament. Ali Habib also had a decent week in Serbia, getting through a tough qualifying draw before losing in the first round, but Elbert Barr couldn’t emulate his British counterpart.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Millen Hurrion finally acclimatised to the conditions in South East Asia, and marched to the quarter-finals after an incredible first-round victory over Indian third seed Digvijay Singh. Another straight-sets win followed in the second round, although he was on the wrong end of a straight-sets defeat in the quarters. Nevertheless, finally a reward for the long trek out to Jakarta for the 23-year-old.

In China, which has finally resumed its offering of ITF events following the COVID pandemic, Mattias Southcombe came through the qualifying draw to reach the main draw proper, but couldn’t get past his Chinese opposition in the first round, losing 6-4 6-1.

Less success in the States: Joshua Goodger lost in the first round, while Adam Jones couldn’t get out of qualifying, while in Belgium, David Quayle also couldn’t reach the main draw.

10 Level

In Tunisia, it was a solid week for Kristina Paskauskas, who reached the quarter-finals before eventually being soundly beaten 6-0 6-1 by a Polish qualifier whom she had beaten in October last year. Kirsty Robertson and Halle Pringle both lost in qualifying.

In Serbia, Isabelle Cherny battled through three rounds of qualifying at the ITF10 to reach the main draw, only the first time she has managed to do that this year. Unfortunately, her run was ended in that first round, but a good string of victories nonetheless to give her a morale boost heading into further tournaments this year.

Junior Tennis

J300 Level

There was only one event above J60 level on the junior tour this week, and that was a J300 in Bamberg, Germany, on the clay. Viktor Frydrych took it upon himself to be the sole British representative, and he did a decent job of things, winning three matches to reach the quarter-finals of the event. Frydrych, unseeded, beat the ninth and sixth seeds before running into Marc Majdandzic of Germany in the quarters, and the home favourite proved too strong for Frydrych, eventually winning 6-3 6-4.

J60 Level

Not a lot of options at J60 level this week, with Finbar McGarvey and Max Carrier both taking part in the event in Denmark, and doing reasonably well. Both of them, as seeded players, enjoyed a bye through the first round before securing routine victories in the second. Their runs came to an end as soon as they encountered fellow seeded players, with both boys being beaten in straight sets in the last 16.

J30 Level

Alisha Ndukwu once again was the star of the show at J30 level for there Brits out in Nigeria – the 13-year-old once again reached the final in Abuja, and for the third week in a row was the beaten finalist – although it was a fellow Brit who got the better of her this time. Indian 13-year-old Aradhyaa Verma came through 6-1 6-4 in the final to cause at the very least a rankings upset – Ndukwu was seeded first at the event.

Elsewhere, in New Caledonia, Josh Hinton reached the final before ultimately losing 6-4 6-2; in Congo, Yash Bahalkar reached the semi-finals; in Guatemala Ollie Hopper lost in the second round; in Armenia, Ganesh Mullaparthi lost in the first round; and in Montenegro, Raquelle Medeleanu, Casey Mauro, and Isabella Gibson did the same.

Tennis Europe

U14 Level

TITLE ALERT!

A rare foray into the Tennis Europe competition this week, as there was a Category 1 event in Roehampton with plenty of up-and-coming British youngsters involved. And there was a winner in the Boys’ Singles, with Rhys Lawlor emerging triumphant from the draw as the fourth seed. Pavana Nrshinga was a semi-finalist, while Samuel Zlotnik made the quarters.

In the Girls’ draw, Edie Griffiths lost out in the final to Czech Jana Kovackova, but it was a good week for the youngster who is ranked 29th in the U14 rankings at the moment. Top seed Hollie Smart was also beaten in the semis by eventual champion Kovackova, while Sevi Parviz, Megan Knight, and Lara Savic were all beaten quarter-finalists.

U12 Level

TITLE ALERT!

We look even further down the Tennis Europe age groups this week, as another home event, an U12 Category 1 event, took place in Aylesbury this week, and there was a British winner in the Girls’ Singles: 2011-born Judy Zhang battled past predominantly British opposition to clinch the title, which was won against Romanian Ingrid Dumitru. Grace Watson and Liv Zingg were beaten in the semis, while in the Boys’ draw, Haqim Kamal was the sole British semi-finalist.

LTA British Tour

There was finally a Premier event on the British Tour this week, taking place on the grass courts of West Worthing. The winners of each event earned a place in the Wimbledon wildcard playoffs, as well as a wildcard for a summer ITF event later in the year.

The winners were Giles Hussey and Ciara Moore: Hussey is the more experienced of the two: the 26-year-old beat former British U18 champion William Jansen in the final. Moore, 15, came through the draw unseeded and beat Sophia Johnson in the final, 7-5 6-2. Marcus Walters and Oliver Bonding were the beaten semi-finalists in the Men’s draw, while Kate Mansfield and Orla Cooper lost out in the last four of the Women’s draw.