Jack Draper seals Indian Wells title & Olivia Nicholls makes WTA 1000 final on a week with eight British titles
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Get the latest from the ATP, WTA and ITF tours as two British No.1s made finals in Indian Wells and eight players sealed titles.
Draper wins Indian Wells title; Nicholls reaches WTA 1000 final
Jack Draper made headlines over the weekend as he lifted his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells.
The British No.1 outclassed 12th seed and former Paris Masters champion Holger Rune 6-2, 6-2 in the final to get his hands on the biggest title of his career.
It was a fitting end to an incredible fortnight for the Briton, where he also managed to defeat the likes of rising star Joao Fonseca, world No.4 Taylor Fritz, 11th seed Ben Shelton and four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Draper is now the fifth British man to have won an ATP Masters 1000 title (Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Andy Muray and Cam Norrie) and the fifth to break into the top 10 in the Open Era.
The 23-year-old is now up at a career-high world No.7 in the ATP rankings.
There was more British success in the California desert as British doubles No.1 Olivia Nicholls also fought her way into a first WTA 1000 final.
Nicholls and Slovakian partner, Tereza Mihalikova had set point to level up the final against USA’s Asia Muhammad and Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs but eventually lost 6-2, 7-6(4).
It was a standout week for the British star, who has now risen nine places in the WTA doubles rankings to a new career-high world No.31.
Last week, Nicholls was announced as part of Lexus GB Billie Jean King Cup team for the Qualifiers in the Netherlands in April.
Trio of British titles at the Cajun Classic
Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid and Lucy Shuker all came away with titles at the ITF Super Series Cajun Classic last week.
Hewett won his 10th Super Series singles title with a dominant 6-0, 6-3 win over world No.3 Martin de la Puente. It’s his fourth Cajun Classic title since 2018.
He and doubles partner Reid also left Baton Rouge with the men’s doubles title after they were awarded a walkover ahead of their scheduled men’s doubles final against Spaniard Daniel Caverzaschi and Stephane Houdet of France.
Meanwhile, Lucy Shuker and Aniek van Koot’s 6-2, 7-6(1) victory over Japan’s Paris Paralympic doubles gold medallist Manami Tanaka and China’s Zhu Zhenzhen gave Shuker her sixth career doubles title at Super Series level.
Four ITF titles for the Brits
There were four British titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour last week as well – including George Loffhagen, Oliver Crawford, Jay Clarke and Hamish Stewart.
23-year-old Loffhagen made it back-to-back singles titles in Portugal as he captured the M25 Vale do Lobo – extending his unbeaten run to 10 matches.
Loffhagen defeated fellow Brits Liam Broady and James Story en-route to the final, where he finished with a 6-0, 7-5 victory against Portugal’s Tiago Pereira.
This marks Loffhagen’s sixth career title at M25 level – all six coming on hard courts in the last three years.
Over in China, Crawford fought his way to a first title of the season at the M25 Luan.
Crawford came through three matches in deciding sets – finishing off with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over former Australian Open semi-finalist and 2017 Next Gen champion Hyeon Chung.
Clarke also featured amongst the title winners last week with his first singles trophy of the year at the M15 Chandigarh.
The 26-year-old saw off Korea’s Woobin Shin 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-0 in the final to bag his 13th career singles trophy.
Finally, Stewart reached is fourth straight doubles final, clinching his second title in as many weeks at the M25 Creteil.
Stewart and Czech partner David Poljak rounded off another great week by defeating Mats Hermans and Tim Ruehl 7-6(1), 6-3 in the final.
