Henry Patten and Julian Cash title winners in Columbus; Lloyd Glasspool, Emma Raducanu and Dan Evans headline ATP & WTA success
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Catch up on an action-packed week of tennis for the British stars on the ATP, WTA and ITF Tours, as well as the Laver Cup.
Glasspool reaches sixth final, while Raducanu and Evans make singles semis
Reaching a new career-high ranking of 20 in the world is Lloyd Glasspool, who battled his way to a sixth ATP doubles final of the season in Metz alongside Harri Heliovaara.
The British, Finnish team defeated French side Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the semi-finals to claim their 40th match win of the year, but fell just short in the final, finishing runners-up to Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 7-6(5), 6-4.
Glasspool and Heliovaara remain sixth in the Race to the Nitto ATP Finals with just a handful of events left to play throughout the rest of the season. Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski have already qualified for the Finals in Turin.
In other results from last week, Emma Raducanu and Dan Evans both impressed en route to semi-final performances in Seoul and San Diego. Raducanu beat Moyuka Uchijima, Yanina Wickmayer and third seed Magda Linette in straight sets to reach her first WTA semi-final of the year, but was forced to retire against Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 3-6, 0-3.
However, Raducanu’s performances have seen her rise 11 places in the WTA rankings to world No.66.
Off the back of representing his country at the Davis Cup in Glasgow only a week before, Evans made good on his top seed status as he eased into the semi-finals. However, facing American Marcus Giron, he eventually came undone, bowing out 6-3, 7-5.
Patten and Cash lift fourth Challenger title for 2022
Henry Patten and Julian Cash continue to make waves on the ATP Challenger Tour as they secured their eighth doubles title of the season in Columbus last week.
The trophy adds to their Challenger success at Surbiton, Ilkley and Granby this year.
The British duo defeated fellow Brit Charles Broom and Germany’s Constantin Frantzen 6-2, 7-5 in the final, with the top seeds cruising to the trophy without dropping a set all week.
Their win sees Patten rise six places to world No.111 in the ATP doubles rankings, while Cash jumps four spots to No.115. Great Britain now has eight players inside the world’s top 120 in men’s doubles – including three in the top 20.
Murray and Norrie represent Team Europe at Laver Cup
It was an emotional week for tennis as fans said goodbye to one of the sport’s greatest champions – Roger Federer – at the Laver Cup. Taking place at the O2 Arena in London, Britain’s Andy Murray and Cam Norrie competed alongside Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic for Team Europe as they narrowly lost to Team World 13-8.
Murray almost upset Australia’s Alex De Minaur on the opening day having taken the opening set, but lost out in the match tie-break 5-7, 6-3, 10-7. It was a similar story for Murray in the doubles on day three, as he and Matteo Berrettini were defeated by Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jack Sock 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.
In a rematch of their blockbuster Davis Cup tie only the week before, Taylor Fritz got the better of Norrie as the American prevented yet another stunning comeback to win 6-1, 4-6, 10-8.
Stewart wins first ITF title; Gill and Baker finish runners-up in singles events
Moving to the ITF Tours now and it was a week to remember for 23-year-old Hamish Stewart who joined forces with American Tristan McCormick to win the M15 Cancun doubles title.
Playing in only his second ITF event, Stewart, alongside McCormick, defeated Jesse Flores and Ricardo Rodriguez 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
It wqas also a strong week for Felix Gill and Blu Baker – both reaching singles finals at their respective tournaments. Over in Czech Republic for the M25 Pardubice, third seed Gill progressed to his third singles final of the season, but lost out to home star Hynek Barton7-5, 7-5.
Baker continues to show promising signs at ITF events over in the States – only losing one set on his way to the M15 Fayetteville final, before he was forced to retire at 5-1 down to Sam Riffice.
