Emily Appleton, Ruby Bishop & Greg Slade lead title-winners as Brits finish runners-up on the WTA & ATP Tours

Doubles finals for Dart, Johnson & Stevenson

It was a similar story in WTA and ATP Challenger events last week as Harriet Dart, Luke Johnson and David Stevenson all finishing as runners-up in doubles events.

Dart teamed up with six-time Grand Slam champion Kristina Mladenovic to reach the final of the Oeiras Challenger in Portugal.

Dart and Mladenovic powered into the final without dropping a set but missed out on the title after losing to Francisca Jorge and Matilde Jorge 6-0, 6-4.

Johnson continued his strong form this year by reaching the final of the Acapulco Challenger with Skander Mansouri.

Bidding for their third Challenger title of the season, Johnson and Mansouri lost to Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha 7-6(4), 7-5.

Stevenson reached his first ATP Challenger final over the weekend alongside Australia’s Patrick Harper at the San Miguel de Tucuman Challenger.

After an impressive week, Stevenson and Harper lost to second seeds Luis Britto and Gonzalo Villanueva 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Appleton seals title in Switzerland

Britain’s Emily Appleton sealed her second W75 title of the season with Germany’s Lena Papadakis in Chiasso, Switzerland.

The duo came back from a set down to defeat Despina Papamichail and Simona Waltert 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 to lift the title.

This is the second time Appleton has won the event, having also claimed the trophy last season with Julia Lohoff.

Elsewhere, Madeline Brooks came runner-up at the W50 Shenzhen, losing the final with Eudice Chong 6-3, 6-2 against Arianne Hartono and Prarthana Thombare.

Sarah Beth Grey and French partner Amandine Hesse also came runners-up at the W50+H Calvi after a final defeat to Urszula Radwanska and Valentina Ryser 6-3, 6-2.

Titles for Bishop & Slade on action-packed weekend in wheelchair tennis

Greg Slade, Ruby Bishop and Martha Harris headlined a successful week for Britain’s wheelchair tennis players in five tournaments across Asia, Europe and North America with Slade gaining his second ITF 2 quad doubles title of the season at the Kobe Open in Japan. 

Slade and Germany’s Marcus Laudan earned two straight sets wins, including a 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over Japanese second seeds Daisuke Ishito and Kei Usami to book their place in the final before being awarded a walkover by top seeds Diego Perez of Chile and Brazil’s Leandro Pena.

The title saw Slade’s first ever tournament in Japan end on a winning note after his singles campaign ended with a strong performance in the quad singles semis, despite losing out in three sets to top seed Perez 2-6,6-2, 6-1.

Bishop earned her first doubles title of 2024 and reached her first singles final of the year at the Plock Polish Open, where Spain’s Lola Ochoa was both doubles partner and singles opponent.

Top seeds Bishop and Ochoa eased into the women’s doubles final without dropping a game and then defeated Belarus’s Zoya Chavdarova and Turkey’s Zeliha Aksak 6-1, 6-2 to give Bishop her first career title alongside the Spaniard.

After dropping just three games to reach the women’s singles final, Bishop put up an admirable effort against Ochoa in the title decider eventually losing out 6-3, 7-6(5).

Harris, who is currently based in the USA, where she plays college tennis In Alabama, won her first women’s doubles title on North American soil and the third senior doubles title of her career after partnering the USA’s Laura Goodkind to victory at the Premier Racquet Club Wheelchair Classic in Markham, Canada.

After reaching the final without dropping a game, Harris and Goodkind beat Brazil’s Maria Fernanda Alves and Costa Rica’s Valeria Valverde 6-1, 6-4 in the final, with Harris having bowed out of the women’s singles to top seed Alves in the semi-finals 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

The Polish Open also brought a first doubles final of 2024 for Joshua Johns. US Open boys’ doubles champion in 2023 alongside fellow Brit Dahnon Ward, Johns partnered Polish veteran Tadeusz Kruszelnicki to the men’s doubles final in Plock for the loss of just three games. The second seeds eventually finished runners-up to top seeds Enrique Siscar Meseguer of Spain and Piotr Jaroszewski of Poland 6-3, 6-2, with Johns bowing out to Siscar Meseguer in the singles semi-finals.

British No.2 Gordon Reid was also a finalist at the Allianz Para Trophy in Munich, which took place alongside the BMW Open. Reid was one of three Brits, alongside Ward and Andrew Penney, to advance to at least the quarter-finals of the ITF 1 event, then beating Argentinian top seed Gustavo Fernandez 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals. But despite being a set and 4-1 up in the final, Reid eventually finished runner-up to second seed Martin dela Puente of Spain 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5).

Abbie Breakwell’s bid for title success at the Biel-Bienne Indoors in Switzerland ended in a quarter-final singles loss to Argentinian top seed Maria Florencia Moreno 6-4, 6-3.