Camden Riviere and Tim Chisholm win record-equalling sixth World Doubles Championship as pair
Defending champions win 3-1 on exhilarating final day
Camden Riviere and Tim Chisholm have defeated John Lumley and Steve Virgona in the final of the World Doubles Championship at Moreton Morrell, winning three of four sets played on the second day of action. They retain the title they first won in 2015, exhibiting the highest standard of doubles play for a generation in the process.
Play resumed with the score at 2-all, with both pairs having shared the honours on the first day. The best-of-9 set format effectively reduced down to a best-of-5 set match with a winner to be decided by the end of the day. Riviere and Chisholm started play at the receiver’s end, having conceded the last game of the previous day to ensure that outcome. It allowed Chisholm to line up against Lumley’s serve — the configuration that had proved most fruitful for the defending champions on the first day. Chisholm, in particular, was much improved, seeing the ball well and striking it clean. Often, he called Riviere off balls from the penthouse, allowing himself to quickly play into the match. The pair were confident and dynamic, hitting their targets and picking off volleys with ease, while Virgona and Lumley took a while to match their opponents in intensity. Chisholm and Riviere won the first five games, before Virgona continued the cat-and-mouse tactics from the previous day by conceding the final game to have control over the choice of receivers for the sixth set.
Initially, it looked as though their decision had once again paid off, with Virgona taking Chisholm’s serve and pushing through to a four-game lead. Lumley and Virgona were able to dial up the pressure from the hazard end, sending Riviere diving around trying to keep the ball out of the dedans. Errors from Riviere and Chisholm were compounding, and it seemed as though Virgona and Lumley would try to engineer the end of the set to remain at the hazard end. Despite having attacked second gallery all week, Virgona left it alone, which had the added benefit of icing out Chisholm. With two game points for a 5/0 lead, the sense around the building was that the defending champions may look to re-engineer the service match-ups for the sixth time in the match. But Riviere was clearly uninterested in riding that see-saw all the way until a ninth set. When he hit a repeat of the boasted grille from a ball falling flush to the back wall, it was clear he was once again here to play. They cut out their errors, making Virgona and Lumley have to fight hard for every ball. The quality of play was scarcely believable to those watching on as each reste seemed to outdo the one before it. Virgona would hit a behind-the-back volley off the bandeau, only for Riviere to charge the net and spike the ball as though he were playing padel. Virgona would scrape a ball back a few centimetres off the ground, follow up with a perfect read off the battery wall only for Chisholm to thread the ball perfectly into the dedans. Chisholm and Riviere narrowed the deficit to two games, but after plenty of persistence, Lumley was able to thread a few balls into the grille to get them over the line, evening up the scoreline at 3-all.
Virgona and Lumley had finished the sixth set at the hazard end, and so were able to keep Lumley on Riviere’s serve. But Riviere and Chisholm had moved beyond such games. The defending champions had the initiative and were not going to give it up easily. They grabbed an early, three-game lead as the standard of tennis kept getting better. Both Chisholm and Virgona were creeping further up the court, not allowing the ball to be played to their feet and seeing the ball well enough to nab a volley. Every rally was worth a round of appreciative applause from the crowd, as every reste was a microcosm of four of the finest practitioners of the art of doubles play at work. Though the challengers were nearly faultless in their defensive play, they could not find a way to get the ball past the defending champions despite hitting shot after shot that would have been a winner against any other opponents. Though Virgona and Lumley came within two points of evening the score at 4-all, it would be the Americans who walked away with the set with Riviere particularly fired up after every point, screaming in Chisholm’s face once he won the final set point.
The eighth set of the day once again saw Chisholm opt to receive from Lumley — just as in the first set of the day. The set opened with an elongated deuce exchange, taken by the defending champions as each of their opponents made errors on the half-volley. They rode the wave, going on the full out attack as more errors started to seep in to Virgona and Lumley’s play. Riviere was lightning quick, covering everything from the backhand corner to the forehand by the net, most notably a ball on the high tambour where he was quick enough to have three attempts at hitting it as it bounced around the angles. Their position on the scoreboard then allowed them to ease off slightly, seeing off the last roll of the dice from the challengers, who tried to mix things up on their serve or look for increasingly difficult winners as the match slipped away from them. Though Virgona and Lumley were able to bring proceedings back to 3-all, Chisholm’s volleying at the net — including a winner hit from next to the main wall on the second gallery line having opted not to drop back after serving — was instrumental in winning a tight deuce game to surge ahead once again. Chisholm followed up with some tight bobbles in the subsequent game, putting them on the precipice. In the 5/4 game, on their first championship point and playing off chase second gallery, Riviere slid a ball into the last gallery — missing the post by less than an inch — to seal victory. Riviere and Chisholm leapt into a bear hug before screaming at their supporters in the hazard galleries.
Riviere and Chisholm’s victory puts them equal with Robert Fahey and Steve Virgona as the most successful pair in World Doubles Championship history, with six victories each. Chisholm, meanwhile, becomes the most prolific player in the World Doubles Championship, having won the inaugural edition partnered by Julian Snow. It draws the doubles season to a close for 2025/26, with the next Open doubles not until the French Open in late September to early October.
Match results:
Robert Fahey & Nick Howell (3) lost to John Lumley & Steve Virgona (2) 1-5
Day 1: 4/6 3/6 3/6 0/6
Day 2: 6/3 5/6
Camden Riviere & Tim Chisholm (1) def Ben Taylor-Matthews & Bryn Sayers (4) 5-1
Day 1: 6/2 6/2 5/6 6/3
Day 2: 6/5 6/1
Camden Riviere & Tim Chisholm (1) def John Lumley & Steve Virgona (2) 5-3
Day 1: 0/6 6/2 6/2 0/6
Day 2: 6/0 3/6 6/3 6/4