Neal Skupski lifts second Masters title in Montreal as one of eight British trophies
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With the hard court season now in full swing as we race towards the US Open later this month – the titles keep coming for the Brits, with another eight in the last week. Recap the best results from a busy week in British tennis.
Skupski crowned champion in Montreal
Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof can’t stop winning this season and this weekend they lifted their sixth title of the year at the National Bank Open in Montreal.
The British, Dutch duo defeated Dan Evans and John Peers 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 in a British final clash – securing Skupski and Koolhof’s second ATP Masters trophy of the year.
The third seeds proved clinical in the big moments throughout the week, battling through match tie-breaks in each of their last three matches – including a quarter-final against another countryman in Lloyd Glasspool and his partner Harri Heliovaara.
Skupski reached two ATP 1000 finals with Evans last year and was full of praise for the 32-year-old.
“We played a lot last year on the doubles tour and I learnt a lot from Dan, especially from his competitiveness, it’s incredible. I wouldn’t be here without his input from last year.”
The victory sees the pair retain their place at the top of the Race to the Nitto ATP Finals and Skupski jumps one place in the rankings to world No.4.
Quartet of ITF champions
The Brits picked up three singles titles on the ITF Tour this week – Jan Choinski, Felix Gill and Charles Broom all being crowned champions in $15k events around the world.
26-year-old Choinski lifted his first title since 2019 at the M15 Frankfurt am Main – overcoming fourth seed Imanol Lopez Morillo 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final. The Brit completed in a perfect week in Germany without losing a set.
Meanwhile, in Belgium, Gill made good on being the top seed at the M15 Eupen, coming away with his second career single title. The 20-year-old defeated home star Buvaysar Gadmauri 6-3, 6-4 in the final to mark his first trophy of the season so far.
Broom completed a trio of successful Brits in singles events last week, bringing home the title at the M15 Helsinki. Second seed Broom wrapped up his first title of the season after coming from a set down against third seed Filip Peliwo 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Britain’s Josh Paris was the only doubles champion on the ITF Tour last week – teaming up with Ben Patael to beat Ron Ellouck and Yuichiro Inui 6-4, 6-2 in the M15 Herzlia final.
Bartram, Ward and Breakwell continue winning records
Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward headed a trio of British wheelchair tennis victories at the Arges Open in Romania as Bartram wrapped up his fifth successive ITF Futures singles title and partnered Ward to their second men’s doubles title in a month.
Having defeated fellow Brit Dermot Bailey in the quarter-finals 3-6, 6-0, 6-1, top seed Bartram moved on to play another countryman in Ward for the singles title. In a repeat of the Nottingham Futures final, Bartram won 6-1, 6-3 to lift the title.
In the men’s doubles, Bartram and Ward shook off a slow start to beat fourth seeds Tomoya Tachi and Maarten Ter Hofte 2-6, 6-2, (10-5) in the semi-finals. However, the second seeds fought hard to avoid being taken to another deciding match tie-break in the final, edging past Dittmar and Jasiak 7-6(5), 7-6(5) to add to their maiden senior title together at last month’s Nottingham Futures.
Abbie Breakwell’s sixth women’s doubles victory of 2022 and her first alongside Israeli partner Maayan Zikri unexpectedly came at the Arges Open after just one completed match. Breakwell and Zikri’s opening 6-1, 6-0 win against Mariam Ayeni and Cristina Deac preceded a walkover against both the top-seeded duo of Emmanuelle Morch and Saki Takamuro and the second-seeded partnership of Lizzy de Greef and Jinte Bos.
