Joe Salisbury, Kyle Edmund, Sonay Kartal & Alfie Hewett get their 2024 seasons off to a title-winning start
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As we gear up to the Australian Open, the titles just keep coming from the British tennis stars. Catch up on the British tennis champions from the last week.
Title No.15 for Salisbury and Ram
Four-time Grand Slam champion Joe Salisbury got his season off to a winning start as he and American partner Rajeev Ram won their first title of the year in Adelaide.
Salisbury and Ram lifted their 15th ATP trophy together after coming back from 5-1 down in the deciding match tie-break to beat second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 7-5, 5-7, 11-9.
The British, American duo look set to be one of the hot favourites at the Australian Open this week, having closed the year by winning the US Open and Nitto ATP Finals, before this latest triumph at the Adelaide International. Salisbury and Ram won their first major title at the Australian Open back in 2019.
Jack Draper finished as runner-up in the singles draw at the Adelaide International in a week of impressive performances for the young Brit.
Draper reached only his second ATP final with wins over top 35 opponents such as Sebastian Baez, Tommy Paul and Alexander Bublik, but lost in the final to Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Willis reaches another Challenger final
Marcus Willis’s strong form on the ATP Challenger Tour continued last week as the 33-year-old reached his third consecutive final at the Oeiras Challenger with Arjun Kadhe.
Willis extended his unbeaten run in Challenger doubles matches to 11 before the British, Indian team lost to Karol Drzewiecki and Piotr Matuszewski 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
Willis now heads back to British soil to play at the M25 Sunderland event this week.
Follow the British tennis players this week
Five British champions in Loughborough
The first tournament of the Lexus GB-Pro Series got off to a flying start, with five British winners across the four draws.
Starting off in the singles, 22-year-old Sonay Kartal won the nineth ITF title of her career at the W35 Loughborough, defeating French star Manon Leonard 6-4, 6-1 in the final.
Former world No.14 Kyle Edmund won his first singles title since 2020 in the M25 Loughborough as the 29-year-old beat Martyn Pawelski 6-4, 6-4 to lift the trophy.
18-year-old Brit Ella McDonald won her second ITF doubles title alongside American Liv Horde.
The young Briton, who is supported by the Pro Scholarship Programme presented by Lexus, closed out the title with a comeback win against Alicia Barnett and Sarah Beth Grey 4-6, 6-2, 10-7.
Finally, in the men’s doubles, second seeds Charles Broom and George Houghton won the battle of the Brits against Jay Clarke and Millen Hurrion 7-5, 6-3 in the final.
Hewett gets season off to perfect start in Victoria
Alfie Hewett picked up right where he left off in 2023 by winning his first singles title of the year at the ITF 1 Victorian Wheelchair Open.
Hewett didn’t drop a set all week and closed out the tournament with a 6-1, 6-4 win over second seed Martin de la Puente in the final.
Elsewhere, Lucy Shuker reached the semi-finals in the women’s doubles with Aniek Van Koot, losing a nail-biter against Luoyao Guo and ZhenZhen Zhu 6-1, 4-6, 20-18.
Andy Lapthorne also made the semi-finals of the quad singles draw, as well as the doubles with fellow Brit Greg Slade.
