Anna McBride & Fabrice Higgins amongst title winners at the AO25 Intellectual Disability Championships

This year marked the third annual Intellectual Disability Championships and Deaf Championships, organized in partnership with Virtus, the International Sports Federation for athletes with intellectual impairments.

Held alongside the Australian Open, this tournament showcased the talents of athletes with intellectual impairments including number of British players.

Anna McBride completes a hat-trick of singles titles

Anna Mcbride cemented her top spot in the rankings after winning her third consecutive singles title at the Australian Open.

After defeating doubles partner Kelly Wren and Breanna Tunny in the opening rounds, McBride closed out the title with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win over French second seed Eva Blanc in the final.

Not only did she lift the trophy but the Briton only dropped a mere four games in her run to the title.

Blanc however got her revenge in the women’s doubles – lifting the title alongside her Belgian doubles partner, Hanne Lavreysen.

The top seeds defeated both British representatives McBride and Lily Mills along with their respective Australian partners Kelly Wren and Carla Lenarduzzi en route to the title.

McBride and Wren managed to secure victories elsewhere in the round robin group, resulting in some well-earned runner-up silverware.

Higgins makes singles final & wins doubles title

Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, all three British entrants were placed in the same side of the draw, meaning only one would make it to the final to face Australian and No.1 seed, Archie Graham.

Fabrice Higgins overcame both fellow Britons Aidan Moody and Oliver Beadle 6-2, 6-1 in both matches, to set up a final against his Australian doubles partner.

In the final, a close fought first set went the way of the Australian, it was a long way back for Higgins who eventually lost 6-4 6-0.

There was still plenty for the No.1 ranked II-1 doubles player to compete for however, as Higgins and Graham convincingly took the men’s doubles title without dropping a set.

The British pairing of Beadle and Moody finished second in the round robin group after a well-earned victory over the Australian, French partnership of Damian Philips and Benjamin Coulier. After securing the first set 7-6(6) in a nail-biting tie-break the momentum was on their side and the pair then confidently won the second 6-1.