British Tennis Watch – Week 4 - 23-29 January 2023

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, and putting Doubles to one side except for big events such as the Grand Slams.

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.

In this week’s edition:

No Doubles joy down under at the Australian Open
Anton Matusevich withdraws from Sunderland final with a shoulder niggle
Mark Ceban clinches ‘Les Petits As’ U14 title in France

Grand Slam: The Australian Open

As promised in our introductory paragraph(s), we turn to the Doubles at the Australian Open this week after all of the British senior singles hopes faded at the end of Week 3. But it wasn't a particularly positive week for British teams Down Under either, especially given British men made up one half of the first, second, sixth and eleventh seeds in the Men’s Doubles.

It was top seed Neal Skupski, and his Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof, that made it the furthest into the Men’s Doubles draw in Australia, with the two of them reaching the quarter-finals before being hammered 6-3 6-1 by wildcards and eventual shock champions Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, both from Australia.

Lloyd Glasspool and his partner Harri Heliovaara of Finland – the sixth seeds – had already been eliminated by the Aussie wildcards in the second round, while Jamie Murray and partner Michael Venus (NZL) and British duo Julian Cash and Henry Patten also lost out in the second round. Second seeds Joe Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram made the last 16, but were beaten in a very tight tussle by eventual runners-up Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski, 6-7(4) 7-6(5) 6-2.

In the Women’s Doubles, British duo Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls lost in the first round, as did Heather Watson and her American partner Danielle Collins.

There was also Mixed Doubles action, with two British males entered with American female partners. Neal Skupski paired up with Desiree Krawczyk while Jamie Murray took part alongside Taylor Townsend. The two pairings met in the quarter-finals, with Skupski and Krawczyk emerging victorious, but they went on to be beaten in the semi-finals by Indian duo Santa Mirza and Rphan Bopanna.

ATP Challenger Tour / WTA/ITF Futures Tour

125 Level

Another week without ‘main tour’ tournaments, but the lower level tournaments rumbled onwards, and Charles Broom made his way to the CH125 in Belgium after reaching the final of the Sunderland ITF25 last week to have a stab at qualifying. Unfortunately, he was drawn against former world number 10 Ernests Gulbis in the first qualifying round, and put up a good fight before eventually succumbing via a tiebreak in the deciding set.

80 Level

The main event at this level in terms of British interest was the Women’s ITF tour event in Sunderland – although, despite being a home event, there wasn’t the usual swathe of British interest smothering the draw. Only nine of the 32 entrants to the main draw were British women, and by the second round that number had dwindled to three. Credit goes to eighth seed Sonay Kartal, who got the furthest by reaching the quarter-finals before losing to eventual finalist Mona Barthel of Germany. Kartal will be happy to have picked up a couple of morale-boosting victories after losing both of her tour-level matches in Australia earlier this month. Eden Silva and Yuriko Miyazaki both reached the second round.

Elsewhere, Matilda Mutavdzic entered her first tour-level competition of the year in France, but couldn’t quite make it through qualifying.

50 Level

32-year-old Amanda Carreras was again in Tunisia this week, this time in the main draw of an ITF50 event, however she withdrew injured from her opening-round match. We wish her well for her recovery.

25 Level

Once again, the Men’s competition at the home ITF event was worth fewer ranking points than the Women’s, but by contrast, over half of the main draw entrants were British hopefuls – and one of them got to the final. Unseeded youngster Anton Matusevich – who won the opening week of the UK Pro League back in Week 1, if you recall – enjoyed an impressive run to the final in Sunderland before a shoulder niggle sustained in a doubles match was enough to force him to withdraw from the final before it had even begun. The result does push Anton into the top 600 in the world (from outside the top 700 this time last week) and is a decent platform for the 21-year-old to build upon for the coming year.

The rest of the British contingent were unable to make it past the second round – although there were excellent first round victories for qualifiers Ali Habib, James Davis, David Quayle, and George Houghton, which earned them all a valuable ATP ranking point to push them slightly further up the ladder.

Elsewhere, Jan Choinski relocated from Thailand to Germany and was the top seed at an ITF25 event in Nussloch. He fell in the semi-finals 6-2 7-5 to third seed and eventual champion Daniel Masur.

Meanwhile, Felix Gill couldn’t continue the heroics of his run to last week’s ITF25 final in Spain this week – he ran into fourth seeded German Sebastian Fanselow in the second round in Manacor and fell in three competitive sets.

15 Level

Unranked 26-year-old Brit Stefan Cooper was just a win away from his first ever ranking point at the ITF15 in the United States this week – he made it through qualifying before coming up against Canadian Aurel Coicanu. Sadly, the Brit served 13 double faults en route to a 6-3 6-3 defeat. Better luck next time, Stefan!

Junior Tennis

Junior Grand Slam

Three British girls flew the flag for Team GB in the Australian Open junior competition, and all things considered, they did a pretty decent job. The standout performance came from 17-year-old Ranah Stoiber, who dropped just one set en route to a semi-final defeat against Mirra Andreeva – a result which sees her rise into the top 20 juniors in the world. Stoiber has already tried her hand at the senior tour, most notably reaching the last 16 at the ITF140 event in Ilkley last summer, and this result in Australia is further proof of her burgeoning potential. Compatriot Ella McDonald had a slightly more disappointing tournament – despite being seeded third, she lost in the first round against Alevtina Ibragimova, while Imogen Haddad was beaten in the final round of qualifying.

J300 Level

There was a sizable contingent of Brits at the J300 event in Costa Rica this week, with Henry Searle once again demonstrating he’s 'one to watch’ for the future with another excellent week. Following his second round exit at the senior ITF25 event in Loughborough in Week 2, the 16-year-old reached the semi-finals here as the seventh seed before going down 6-3 6-4 to American Roy Horovitz. Oliver Bonding also made the second round, although it was a disappointing week for second seed Phoenix Weir, who lost in the first round.

In the Girls’ draw, Isabelle Lacy was the last woman standing for Team GB, reaching the second round before a three-set exit to Israeli Mika Buchnik. Hephzibah Oluwadare and Ruby Cooling both lost in the first round, while Ellie Blackford failed to make it out of qualifying.

J200 Level

A smattering of British interest at the second successive J200 in Tunisia this week. Benjamin Gusic Wan won one and lost one to reach the second round in the Boys’ Singles, while compatriot Marelie Raath lost in the first round.

J100 Level

Luca Bluett had a very nice run to the semi-finals of the J100 in Dubai this week. The 17-year-old took out the eighth seed in the opening round and won two more matches before eventually running into the eventual champion Nikola Djosic. Bluett was in Glasgow for the J100 last week, reaching the second round, and those two results will see him enter the top 300 in the junior rankings for the first time.

J60 Level

14-year-old Sophie Bekker enjoyed an impressive run to the quarter-finals of the J60 in Durban, South Africa this week. Despite still being eligible for Tennis Europe U14 competition last year, Bekker played the majority of her competitions at mid-ITF Juniors level last season, and is already ranked inside the top 800 in the junior rankings. She’s another young star worth remembering the name of. Her compatriot Daisy Clifford lost in the first round.

Elsewhere, Jadesola Cole backed up her run to the J60 semi-finals in Israel last week with another semi-final berth this week in Doha. She did end up retiring 6-4 5-1 down in her semi-final, but a promising fortnight so far for her. Flora Johnson and Vlada Kozak also made the quarter-finals here, as did Maxwell Castle in the Boys’ draw – overall an excellent week at this level of junior tennis for the Brits!

J30 Level

A finalist at the lowest level of Juniors this week: Maximilian Carrier was seeded second in Czechia this week and fulfilled that seeding to reach the final, only to lose to the top seed Krystof Svojgr (try pronouncing that one!) in straight sets.

In Belgium, Arabella Loftus reached the second round while Alfie King fell in the first, and in Turkey, Taymur Mohammed and Isabella Moss reached the last 16 while Hector Fullone reached the second round.

Tennis Europe Events

U14 Super Category

TITLE ALERT!

Two weeks in a row for Mark Ceban! After his Category 1 victory last week in Bolton, Mark marched across the Channel for ‘Les Petits As’ competition in France to take on the very best at U14 level in Europe. Ceban, 13, is a rather lanky young teen who can already wallop serves down at speeds of around 190kph, and this proved rather useful against other players his age – but certainly not his height – as he marched to the title in Tarbes. Ceban was truly tested in the last 16 against Israeli Itamar Verthaimer – he was a break down in the deciding set before dragging himself back into the match – but the final against his Lebanese Doubles partner Daniel Jade was a comfortable walk in the park. Ceban won 6-3 6-2 and will now move into second in the U14 rankings. Congratulations Mark!

There were other Brits involved in France – both British Girls, Hollie Smart and Ophelia Koranic Davies (Allegra’s sister) lost in the opening round, while qualifier Rhys Lawlor took a set off the top seed Savva Rybkin in the second round – the round where fellow Brit Leo Wright also played his final match of the competition.

LTA British Tour

There was a Tier 2 event in Edgbaston this week. Ben Hudson, 17, won the Men’s Singles against Cameron Malik in the final, while 18-year-old Kate Mansfield was the Women’s champion, overcoming Nadia Rawson in the final.