Fahey retains British Open title on women's tennis's return to Queen's
Howell banishes Fahey curse to reach second British Open final
Claire Fahey has secured her 48th Open title, winning through the final of the first British Open at Queen’s for 36 years without dropping a game. Meanwhile, John Lumley and Nick Howell have secured progression into the final of the open draw, winning their respective semi-finals on Saturday.
The first of the open semi-finals was between Nick Howell and Robert Fahey. The pressure was on Howell, having not beaten Fahey since the 2019 Australian Open, including three defeats in the calendar year of 2025 alone. The former World Champion had looked extremely strong in the earlier rounds, hitting the ball with as good a stroke as he had for many years. But Howell was able to neutralise the threat, swatting off Fahey’s attack, and pressing him onto the defensive instead. Howell covered Fahey’s cut-volley well, which never gave Fahey the option to force the ball mid-rally. Once Howell had established a foothold at 4/2 in the first set, the sting came out of Fahey’s play. He was hitting his own shots well, beating a better than a yard chase to win the set. Fahey struggled to find chases, as he largely ignored the galleries and tried to hit deep floor chases, but Howell had it covered. The second set followed a similar pattern to the first: Howell needing to fight hard to earn a lead but once he had done so, snowballing the score through the rest of the set with the last few games passing by quickly.
Fahey brought Howell’s six game streak to an end in the second game of the third set. Howell couldn’t quite keep the same intensity going, making a few more unforced errors as Fahey remained competitive. Fahey was finally able to get his force away, earning himself a 4/3 lead in the set. But once again, Howell was able to cling to the service end despite Fahey’s best effort. Even though plenty of Howell’s defensive play balls went flying onto the grille penthouse, Fahey could never take advantage. Howell’s backhand was strong enough to deal with any piercing shot that Fahey could hit. Howell held the service end from 3-all in the third set until his first match point at 5/4, albiet with a chase of a yard. Fahey now finally having recovered the serve and sent the set to a deciding game, but lost the serve again in the process. Howell won the last game comfortably, moving through to a second consecutive British Open final.
The second semi-final was between the 2021 champion John Lumley and the 2012 champion Bryn Sayers. Playing on his home court, Sayers was able to dial up the pressure on Lumley hitting his high serve well and driving hard at the dedans. Lumley discovered he had a fight on his hands, with no point ever coming easily but he did have the retrieval skills to match. Neither player earned more than a game of separation throughout the first set. Sayers was within two points of the set in the 5/4 game — with the service end — but Lumley calmly chased down any threat Sayers had of taking it, winning the deciding game to love.
As the second set began, Lumley started to break away. Not easily, as there was still plenty of hard grafting yet to do as Sayers initially brought back the two game buffer. Lumley was gaining more of the upper hand in each of the rallies, pressing Sayers as hard as he could until finally elliciting the error. He pushed through three games from 2-all to 5/2, by which time the set was pushed beyond doubt despite Sayers pulling back a game. Lumley carried on into the third as well, giving up two early games before romping toward the finish line. Sayers kept fighting all the way through, but the quality of the world number 2 was enough to see him through to his third British Open final.
It was a historic moment when Claire Fahey and Tara Lumley stepped onto the east court at the Queen’s club to prepare for the final of the women’s draw. Only three times in the late 1980’s had the women’s British Open been held at the country’s premier real tennis venue. The winners on those occasions had been Lesley Ronaldson, Sally Jones and Tara’s mother Penny, the latter of whom resumed her place in the dedans having just watched her other child John in the earlier match. Outside of the World Championships, women’s tennis had never previously had a larger stage.
The crowd packed out the dedans and the members bar, with any seat next to a radiator hot property giving the chilly conditions on court. Fahey was keen to put her stamp on the occasion, showing off her extreme skill and ability, finding a way to hit the ball as deep as possible into the corners from anywhere on the court. She was unrelenting and unhittable, dropping just three points over the first first four games. Lumley started to muster some resistance in the fifth game but never really found anything to threaten the World Champion. Her best threat came on the return of serve, needing to find a good ball as early as possible to avoid getting sucked in to a rally with Fahey, as the threat of finding a good ball increased the longer the reste. The closest Lumley came to avoiding the double bagel came in the final game of the match, having several game points but couldn’t execute the final shot required. Fahey took the match on her first championship point, sending an errant bobble deep deep into the backhand corner and tight on the wall to beat a better than 2 chase.
Fahey opened her post-match comments with a reference to the chilly weather. “I’d like to thank every single one of you who has risked their health tonight to be out here, but who’s supported not only tonight’s match but all the matches throughout the week,” she said. “I’ve seen the numbers and it really has been phenomenal. It’s so amazing to hear that people have been turning up here specifically for the women’s matches, and it’s a lovely inspiring moment that we can have many generations in the future that can see the women’s on the court here at the Queen’s Club.”
The women’s draw will conclude on Sunday evening with the doubles final, with both Fahey and Lumley teaming up to defend the crown they last won earlier in the year at Seacourt. The open doubles draw will continue with two semi-finals back-to-back starting at 2:00 PM, with the open singles final to take place on Monday evening.
Match results:
2:00 PM: Robert Fahey (4) lost to Nick Howell (2) 2/6 2/6 5/6
4:00 PM: John Lumley (1) def Bryn Sayers (7) 6/5 6/3 6/2
6:45 PM: Claire Fahey (1) def Tara Lumley (2) 6/0 6/0
Order of play for Sunday (all times GMT):
2:00 PM: Robert Fahey & Nick Howell (1) vs Ben Taylor-Matthews & Bryn Sayers (3)
Followed by (approx 4:00 PM): Josh Dodgson & John Woods-Casey (6) vs Vaughan Hamilton & John Lumley (2)
Not before 6:45 PM: Claire Fahey & Tara Lumley (1) vs Jess Garside & Georgie Willis (2)