Eden Silva, Jay Clarke, Holly Hutchinson & Lucy Shuker star in doubles title-winning week
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It was a strong week for British doubles bringing in three trophies on the ITF Tour and another on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour – here’s everything you need to know from the last week in tennis.
Silva shines in Slovenia
Starting off with 28-year-old Eden Silva, who claimed the biggest title of the week at the W75 Maribor in Slovenia.
Teaming up with Anastasia Tikhonova, Silva won her first trophy of the season and best of her career after beating Luksika Kumkhum and Peangtarn Plipuech 7-5, 6-3 in the final.
Silva had to get past two Brits on her way to the final, including a quarter-final win over Lily Miyazaki and her partner Isabelle Haverlag, before a blockbuster victory over second seeds Maia Lumsden and Jessika Ponchet 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-5.
The British star is currently world No.182 in the WTA doubles rankings.
Clarke & Hutchinson add to title tally
Jay Clarke’s doubles success keeps on rolling after the 25-year-old added his fourth title of the season at the M25 Badalona.
Playing with Italy’s Augusto Virgili for the first time, the second seeds completed their championship winning week by saving two match points to beat Ryan Nijboer and Alejo Sanchez Quilez 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 in the final.
Clarke’s form on the singles court also continued as the Briton made the semi-final. In the final four he lost out to sixth seed and eventual champion Lorenzo Giustino 6-3, 6-2.
There was also title success for Britain’s Holly Hutchinson who bagged the doubles title at the W15 Sharm ElSheikh.
The 26-year-old won her second trophy of her career and of the season with France’s Julie Belgraver. The duo defeated second seeds Karola Patricia Bejenaru and Boyoung Jeong 7-6(4), 3-6, 10-7.
Special shoutout to 16-year-old Mimi Xu, who reached the singles semi-final at the W15 Monastir, a week after winning the doubles title in Tunisia.
Shuker crowned champion at Busan Open
Lucy Shuker completed the first of three back-to-back tournaments in South Korea on a winning note after partnering Japan’s Yui Kamiji to win the women’s doubles title at the ITF 2 Busan Open.
Shuker and Kamiji reached their sixth final together after dropping just one game in both their quarter-final win over Korea’s Seong Suk An and Thailand’s Sakhorn Khanthasit and their semi-final win over Japan’s Shiori Funamizu and China’s Luoyao Guo. The top seeds then beat another Japanese-Chinese partnership in Manami Tanaka and Zhenzhen Zhu 6-3, 6-2 to lift their third doubles title as a partnership.
A quarter-finalist in the women’s singles before bowing out to China’s Xiaohui Li 6-1, 6-1, Shuker will now contest the ITF 1 Daegu Open along with Cornelia Oosthuizen, who put up a fine effort before her singles challenge in Busan ended in a 6-4, 6-4 first-round loss to China’s Jinlian Huang. Oosthuizen and Morocco’s Najwa Awane also went out in the first round of the doubles, beaten 6-1, 6-1 by French duo Ksenia Chasteau and Zoe Maras.
