Mark Whitehouse wins first ATP Challenger title & singles trophies for George Loffhagen & Emily Appleton

Whitehouse & Parker star on ATP Challenger Tour

The biggest title of the week went to Britain’s Mark Whitehouse who clinched the doubles crown at the Heronissos Challenger alongside Bolivian Juan Carlos Prado Angelo.

The 31-year-old managed to lift his first career ATP Challenger Tour title after they defeated Austrian Dennia Novak and Hungary’s Zsombor Piros 7-6(7), 6-2 in the final.

Meanwhile, in the singles, Stuart Parker was only one match away from his second Challenger trophy after he defeated fellow Briton Ryan Peniston in straight sets to reach the final.

However, it wasn’t to be for the current world No.562 who eventually lost out 6-3, 6-3 to Lithuania’s Edas Butvilas in the final.

Impressive weeks for Dart, Loffhagen, Appleton & Miyazaki 

There were more singles finalists across the world on the ITF World Tennis Tour – starting with Billie Jean King Cup star Harriet Dart, who bounced back at the W75 Porto last week.

In her first tournament since January, Dart racked up wins against Alina Charaeva, Tyra Caterina Grant, Emeline Darton and Louisa Chirico en-route to the final.

However, the top seed eventually missed out on the title to Canada’s Victoria Mboko 6-1, 6-1.

George Loffhagen won the biggest singles title of the week competing at the M25 Qunita do Lago - the fifth ITF crown of his career.

Loffhagen knocked out the fifth and third seeds in the early rounds before finsihing with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory against seventh seed Gabi Adrian Boitan in the final. This was his second ITF $25k singles final in his last two events.

Emily Appleton came away from last week with her first piece of singles silverware this season – sealing the title at the W15 Trois-Rivieres.

Top seed Appleton came through a tough battle against 21-year-old Malaika Rapolu in the final to win 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in an hour and 24 minutes.

This is the fourth ITF singles title of her career and her first since winning in Loughborough back in 2022.

However, Lily Miyazaki finished as runner-up at the W35 Helsinki after third seeded Belgian Sofia Costoulas took a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Miyazaki has made the semi-final or better at three ITF events already this season.

Doubles titles for British trio

More success followed in doubles events last week with titles for Ella McDonald, Ben Jones and Hamish Stewart.

19-year-old McDonald continued her impressive doubles form with another trophy at the W35 Helsinki with Finland’s Laura Hietaranta.

McDonald – who won seven ITF doubles titles last year in her first full season on tour – captured her first trophy of 2025 with a 6-3, 6-4 final win over top seeds Ayla Aksu and Martyna Kubka.

Jones and Czech star David Poljak won the M25 Trimbach after taking down fourth seeds Mats Rosenkranz and Niklas Schell in the final 7-5, 6-4.

This marked Jones’ 20^th career doubles title and second of the season so far.

Finally, Stewart had a great week at the M15 Poitiers. The Brit teamed up with Eero Vasa to defeat second seeds Axel Garcian and Tristan Lamasine 7-5, 7-6(3) in the final.

Stewart also reached the final of the singles but finished as runner-up to Lamasine 6-3, 6-7(0), 6-1.

Lapthorne & Shuker reach Georgia Open finals

Andy Lapthorne and Lucy Shuker were both doubles finalists at the Georgia Open as Britain’s wheelchair players contested the first of two back-to-back tournaments in the USA.

Lapthorne came closest to landing a title at the ITF 1 Series tournament as his first tournament with Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan as a doubles partner saw the second seeds defeat American duo Andrew Bogdanov and David Wagner 6-3, 6-3 to reach the final. And while they made the better start to the final, Lapthorne and Kaplan were ultimately edged out by the top seeds as Australia’s Heath Davidson and Canada’s Robert Shaw claimed the win 3-6, 6-2, 10-7.

Shuker’s bid for her fourth Georgia Open women’s doubles title and her latest doubles title partnering Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot began with back-to-back straight sets wins as the four British women in the draw all met in the doubles quarter-finals, with Shuker and Van Koot defeating Martha Harris and her French partner Zoe Maras 6-1, 6-1. Meanwhile, British No.2 Cornelia Oosthuizen and Charlotte Fairbank of France won a thrilling contest against Ruby Bishop and the USA’s Maylee Phelps 6-3, 5-7, (11-9).

However, it was Shuker and Van Koot who went all the way toe the final before another close contest ended in a 6-4, 7-6(3) win for the second seeds, Japan’s Manami Tanaka and China’s Zhenzhen Zhu.

Shuker faired best of the Brits in the women’s singles draw but after an early 6-2, 6-0 win over Harris the British No.1’s title bid ended in the quarter-finals as eventual champion Lizzy de Greef advanced 6-2, 6-4. Meanwhile, Lapthorne also bowed out to the eventual champion in the quad singles, pushing Israel’s world No.3 Guy Sasson to a third set before the top seed edged their semi-final 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.