Joe Salisbury & Rajeev Ram reach Masters final & Jacob Fearnley claims second Challenger crown
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All the latest from the British tennis stars last week as Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram starred in Montreal and Jacob Fearnley took home his second trophy of the summer.
Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram reached their first ATP Masters 1000 final of the season at the National Bank Open.
The third seeds picked up three strong wins against Lloyd Glasspool and Nikola Mektic, Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin, and saved four match points against Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski to reach the final.
Bidding for their second title in Montreal, Salisbury and Ram were defeated by top seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-2, 7-6(4).
The four-time major champions now move on to Cincinnati Open before aiming for a fourth straight US Open title.
In the singles, Katie Boulter reached the third round, where she eventually lost to world No.3 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-3.
Fearnley lifts title in Lincoln
Jacob Fearnley’s impressive start to life on the professional tour took another big step on Sunday as he captured his second ATP Challenger title in Lincoln, USA.
The 23-year-old Brit, who won the Rothesay Open Nottingham in the summer before claiming his first victory at Wimbledon, defeated Coleman Wong 6-4, 6-2 in the final.
En route to the title, Fearnley also took out top seed and former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Christopher Eubanks in the second round 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, before also beating fifth seed Bu Yunchaokete in the semi-final 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(3).
The title has seen Fearnley jump 44 places in the ATP rankings to a new career-high at world No.162.
Kartal goes back-to-back in Roehampton
British success continued in the second week of the Lexus GB Pro Series Roehampton as Sonay Kartal completed back-to-back singles victories in the women’s singles.
Kartal extended her unbeaten run at Roehampton to 10 matches as she wrapped up her second straight W35 trophy with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Hauka Kaji in the final.
The 22-year-old won both titles at the National Tennis Centre without dropping a set. It’s her fourth title on the Performance Competitions Calendar this year.
In the men’s doubles, all British duo Tom Hands and Harry Wendelken took home the title after they defeated countrymen Liam Hignett and James MacKinlay 6-3, 6-4.
Like Kartal, this was Wendelken’s second title in as many weeks, while it marked Hands’ first trophy of the season.
British wins on the ITF Tour
20-year-old Lui Maxted captured his first professional title over the weekend at the M25 Southaven in the men’s doubles draw.
Maxted and American Michael Zheng beat Keshav Chopra and Andres Martin in the final 6-2, 6-4 to clinch a landmark win for the young Brit.
In Ireland, Ben Jones lifted both the singles and doubles title at the M15 Dublin.
For his maiden singles trophy, Jones came through against Poland’s Filip Pieczonka 6-4, 7-6(5) before teaming up with Joshua Charlton to clinch doubles silverware.
Alice Gillan was also amongst the title-winners in Dublin thanks to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Aleksandra Julia Zuchanska – marking her second career singles trophy.
Finally on the ITF Tour, Oliver Tarvet, 20, came from behind to beat Eliakim Coulibaly 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1 in the M15 Monastir final. It’s the third time he’s won a $15k event in Tunisia.
Emily Donnan wins first professional titles
For the second time in a fortnight Emily Donnan secured the outstanding result for British wheelchair tennis as she earned her first two international singles title at the Kaufland-BRD Bucharest 1 Wheelchair Tennis Open.
Having ended July by reaching her first UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour women’s singles final in Turin, 19-year-old Donnan beat former world No.7 Ju-Youn Park 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to finish top of her round-robin group to book her place in another final in Bucharest. She then beat Bulgaria’s Zoya Chavdarova 6-4, 6-2 to secure her maiden singles title.
In the following tournament in the same week, Donnan beat Park again 6-3, 6-0 to go back-to-back in Bucharest.
The 19-year-old also partnered with Park to take home the doubles title – dropping just one game in their two matches to finish top of the group.
