Booth wins eleventh Victorian Open singles title
Pridmore and Williams overcome defending champions to win doubles event
Kieran Booth has secured his eleventh career Victorian Open singles title, defeating Michael Williams in straight sets at the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club on Sunday. Later, Williams teamed up with Oliver Pridmore to each win their second Victorian Open doubles titles.
When Kieran Booth stepped on court, it marked the fourteenth time he had reached a Victorian Open final. He had only lost on three previous occasions: once each to then current and then future World Champions Robert Fahey and Camden Riviere, and once to his current opponent, Michael Williams. Williams was playing in his fifth final, with his only victory over Booth coming the last time the event was held in Melbourne in 2022.
Both players attacked any ball they could in open space right from the start. They either looked to slam it around the angles or play heavy cut into a corner. But both players were also defensively sound, able to deal with many of the more serious threats. The rallies saw each aggressive shot was met with a quick riposte as the initiative swung both ways. The first few games were even as Booth’s outright winners and Williams’s defensive errors were balanced against Booth’s overextensions and Williams’s counterpunches. Late in the first set, Booth’s main-wall forcing came good, while Williams’s errors on the backhand mounted. Booth won the last three games to secure the set.
Trailing in the match, Williams determined the best response was to push harder on the accelerator. The balance of the match was restored, with the first four games shared between them. A long rally at 2-all, 15-all proved decisive. Having had the advantage for much of the reste, Williams slammed a ball into the net, dropping his racket to the floor and bending over in frustration. From then on, his shots started to be more reckless, with Booth sitting in and absorbing the pressure, finishing the points with excellent execution. Booth won all the remaining games, throwing a fist-pump in celebration as he struck the final point.
Williams returned to the court in the afternoon for the doubles final, partnered by Oliver Pridmore. Their opponents were the first seeds, defending champions and home court professionals Chris Chapman and John Woods-Casey. Pridmore played back, covering the court well and sending bullets down the forehand wall. But Woods-Casey and Chapman both played with excellent hands, picking balls off the wall late and sending them back with interest. Chapman was particularly impressive, turning on Williams’s side wall serves to take them on the backhand and picking the ball low off the ground as Woods-Casey jumped over any missed forces. Pridmore tried to keep up with the pace of the return, including one retrieval where he slid so far his backside ended up on the floor. Williams’s presence at the net gave Pridmore the freedom to play behind him, knowing that anything played to the backhand was covered. The games again exchanged back and forth throughout the first set until Pridmore and Williams started to break away, hardly giving away a chase as they won the last three games of the set.
Pridmore and Williams had the lead in the second set, but once Woods-Casey and Chapman were able to find some chases, they started to claw their way back into contention. With a point to level the set at stake, and playing off a hazard worse than second gallery chase, Williams slammed the ball into the high back wall. Woods-Casey ran forward to cover it, playing the ball after it bounced back off the net tape and lobbing it into the hazard second gallery. He appealed to the marker for the point but it was denied. Though they won the game shortly after, it would be their last of the match, as Pridmore and Williams ran through the final few games to secure victory. It marked their first victory as a pair, having each previously won once, each with Booth, while Chapman and Woods-Casey were subjected to their third defeat in four finals.
The 2026 Australian domestic Open season will continue in August with the New South Wales Open, and will conclude in October with the Tasmanian Open.
Match results:
10:30 AM (North): Kieran Booth (1) def Michael Williams (4) 6/3 6/2
2:00 PM (North): Chris Chapman & John Woods-Casey (1) lost to Oliver Pridmore & Michael Williams (2) 3/6 3/6