Oliver Crawford, Hamish Stewart, Ben Bartram & Lucy Shuker claim titles

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07/04/25 • 2 MINUTE READ

With the tennis world starting to transition into the clay court season, catch up with the latest from the British stars with titles in India, Egypt and the USA.

Murray & Barnett enjoy deep runs on ATP & WTA Tours

British doubles stars Jamie Murray and Alicia Barnett had standout weeks on the ATP and WTA Tours in Bucharest and Antalya.

Murray and Adam Pavlasek reached the semi-finals at the ATP 250 Tiriac Open – the Britons third ATP semi-final appearance of the season so far.

The duo edged a tough match up with Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek in the quarter-finals 2-6, 7-6(2), 10-8 to progress to the final four.

However, it was here that they eventually lost to top seeds and eventual champions Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-2, 6-4.

Meanwhile, Barnett and France’s Elixane Lechemia made the final of the WTA 125 Megasaray Hotels Open – the best performance of the Briton’s season so far.

Barnett and Lechemia came through three close matches but eventually finished runners-up to Anna Bondar and Simona Waltert 7-5, 2-6, 10-6.

Crawford extends title-winning season in India

Oliver Crawford claimed his fourth singles of the title of the season over the weekend at the M25 Bengaluru.

The British star continued his impressive run of form with wins over Kody Pearson, Sidharth Rawat, Aryan Shah and Ryuki Matsuda en-route to his sixth final of the season.

In the final he took on fellow Brit Jay Clarke, but unfortunately his countryman was forced to retire with injury after Crawford took a 5-2 lead.

Crawford has now won 34 matches already this season.

Meanwhile, Hamish Stewart had a strong week at the M15 Sharm El Sheikh – reaching the final of both the singles and doubles draws.

Despite finishing runner-up in the singles after a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 loss to third seed Vadym Ursu in the final, Stewart was victorious in the doubles alongside Germany’s Niklas Schell.

Stewart and Schell secured the title with an impressive win over Yurii Dzhavakian and Fares Zakaria 6-3, 7-6(1).

This is Stewart’s fourth ITF doubles title of the 2025 season so far.

Bartram & Shuker lift titles in Houston

Ben Bartram and Lucy Shuker each won their first singles titles of 2025 as Britain’s wheelchair players claimed three titles at the ITF 3 Series Cougar Open in Houston.

Bartram justified top seeding in the men’s singles, dropping a total of just seven games across matches against the USA’s Atif Moon, Canada’s Thomas Venos and Japanese fourth seed Shogo Takano to book his place in the men’s singles final against Guilhem Laget, subsequently beating Laget 7-5, 6-2 to repeat the outcome of their first round match at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Bartram later partnered the USA’s Conner Stroud to win the men’s doubles final against Israel’s Adam Berdichevsky and the USA’s Charlie Cooper 6-2, 6-4.

Berdichevsky and Cooper had earlier denied Britain’s Joshua Johns a place in the men’s doubles final after beating Johns and Laget 7-5, 6-7, 10-8 in the semi-finals, with Johns having also bowed out in the singles quarter-finals against Takano.

Shuker also lived up to her top seeding in a women’s singles draw featuring three Brits, the British No.1 defeating Ruby Bishop 6-0, 6-0 in her opening match after a first round bye.

Shuker completed a 6-4, 6-3 semi-final win over Germany’s Katharina Kruger on the last day of competition after the penultimate day of action had ended prematurely due to the weather, with British No.2 Cornelia Oosthuizen also completing her delayed semi-final as she wrapped up a 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Charlotte Fairbank of France.

That left Shuker and Oosthuizen to contest a UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour singles final for the first time after three previous quarter-final head-to-heads, with Shuker prevailing 6-3, 6-3.

Shuker and Bishop also narrowly missed out on reaching the women’s doubles final after a 4-6, 6-0, 12-10 semi-final loss to top seeds Fairbank and Maylee Phelps of Canada.

Elsewhere, there was a career-best win for Dahnon Ward at the ITF 1 Daegu Open in South Korea. Ward beat top seed, former world No.1 and current world No.6 Stephane Houdet of France 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the men’s singles second round in Daegu for his first career win against a top 10-ranked opponent.

However, Ward was unable to go beyond the quarter-finals after another three-set contest, eventually bowing out to Israel’s Sergei Lysov 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

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