Faheys and Lumleys on show at British Open doubles
Claire and Tara win women's doubles while Rob to play John in doubles final
Claire Fahey and Tara Lumley have become the first players in history to win the women’s British Open doubles on the court at the Queen’s Club, with their victory in the final on Sunday. Meanwhile, Claire’s husband Rob and Tara’s brother John will face off in the doubles final on Tuesday following their victories in the semi-finals with Nick Howell and Vaughan Hamilton respectively.
The afternoon began with the first open doubles semi-final between first seeds Robert Fahey and Nick Howell, and third seeds Ben Taylor-Matthews and Bryn Sayers. The initial stages were evenly matched, with Fahey and Howell playing server-up and Sayers and Taylor-Matthews generally, but not always, playing Taylor-Matthews at the back. Everything in the first set built towards the 3-all game. It was cagey and tense, with the game begging for someone to step up and take control of the match. After nine deuces, Fahey played a volley up the main wall to finally break through. From then on, the dam burst as Fahey and Howell approached the final few games with a new, positive energy. Their attacking play found a new spark as Sayers and Taylor-Matthews found themselves on the back foot. Fahey and Howell ran away with the final three games, posting a one set lead.
Sayers and Taylor-Matthews switched receivers for the second set, and it immediately had the desired effect. Sayers was better able to put pressure on the Howell high serve in the first few games, as well as being able to tie him down with his own high serve. However, the damage for Fahey and Howell through the set was mostly self-inflicted, drawn from a large number of unforced errors that grew more plentiful as the set went on. Sayers and Taylor-Matthews were solid in response, winning the second set, dropping only the penultimate game.
The third set was a complete turn-around from the second, even though there was no change of receivers. Fahey and Howell fixed their mistakes and began really hitting their strides. Both were executing their shots well as Sayers and Taylor-Matthews tried to find an effective response. They won eight straight games, including the whole of the third set and the first two games of the fourth. Howell’s volleying at the back became a wall that Sayers and Taylor-Matthews could not get through. Even though the third seeds did manage to take the set to 3-all, Fahey’s class and ability to hit through their opposition saw the final three games pass quite quickly, securing their place in the final in four sets.
The second open doubles semi-final was between sixth seeds Josh Dodgson and John Woods-Casey and second seeds Vaughan Hamilton and John Lumley. It was to be the first real test to see if Hamilton could hack it as a partner to a player as well-renowned as Lumley, as Dodgson and Woods-Casey had shown themselves to be a formidable if unorthodox pairing in their first two matches of the tournament. Hamilton was sent forward to the galleries to try and cause as much chaos as possible — a philosophy matched by both Dodgson and Woods-Casey — with Lumley backing himself to mop up any left-overs. They took the first two games, but after Dodgson and Woods-Casey fought back the next three it was game on. Lumley was calm and relaxed backing himself to retrieve everything while at the service end or hit a dedans or chase while at the hazard end, finding the games needed to take the first set and go 3/1 up in the second.
With the match starting to slip away, Woods-Casey stepped up to the plate to swing away with balls aimed at the winning gallery. The Melbourne professional was able to pick off several over the course of the set, helping claw back a few games. Dodgson was holding a higher line as well, even if his volleying hadn’t quite hit the potential he had shown during his quarter-final match against Robert Shenkman and Leon Smart. Hamilton and Lumley continued to press knowing that the longer the rally lasted, the better it was for them. They went on to a 5/3 lead before Dodgson found a beserker mode, hitting winning volleys from hazard the door. The set went to a deciding game, but Lumley struck back-to-back forces to win the eleventh game to love by either striking the dedans or the frame of Woods-Casey’s racket.
Into the third set, Dodgson continued his care-free policy of pushing high and cutting off as much as possible from the middle of the court, including playing several volleys with his backside on the floor. The set was close from start to finish, with neither pair winning more than a game’s lead before again reaching a deciding eleventh game. When it counted, Woods-Casey’s back-court volley came good, propelling them into a lead before heading down to the hazard end with two hazard chases in tow. On the first, Woods-Casey struck a low ball onto the battery wall, which sent Hamilton jumping out of the way, but with Lumley unprepared when backing up. A volley error on the next ball gave the set to the sixth seeds.
By the fourth set, however, Dodgson and Woods-Casey somewhat ran out of steam, as their attacking shots no longer had the same verve nor vigour. Though they were able to maintain touching distance throughout the set, Hamilton and Lumley sensed that victory was close and pressed on. The scoreboard somewhat flattered Dodgson and Woods-Casey, who despite a spirited late resistance were not a chance of taking the set. Hamilton and Lumley won through to the final, where Hamilton will aim to be the first new Open doubles winner since Nick Howell won the Australian Open in 2018.
Running an hour over schedule, the women’s doubles final took to the court. Unlike the singles tournament, which had taken place at the Queen’s Club on three occasions in the 1980’s, it was the first time the doubles tournament had taken place at the premier show court in the country. The match was between the top two seeds: first seeds and World Champions Claire Fahey and Tara Lumley playing second seeds Jess Garside and Georgie Willis.
Both pairs set up the same the whole way through the match, with Willis and Fahey taking the back of the court for their respective teams while Garside and Lumley fought it out at the front. At the start of the match, Willis was impressing with her big forehand volleys and her double-handed backhand which drops downwards with plenty of cut. She and Garside were having plenty of success from the service end through the third set, as Willis held her own against Fahey, with Garside proving effective on the volley. But it was at the hazard end where they struggled, as Fahey was able to pick off winners with ease and with Lumley playing her role to perfection.
The World Champions didn’t need luck on their side but they got it anyway, benefiting from a back wall winning gallery early in the first set, much to Garside’s exasperation. After holding level at 1-all, the second seeds were unable to find chases, and even when they did their spells at the service end were short. Fahey and Lumley raced ahead, despite Garside and Willis’s best efforts. The latter had an opportunity to find a second game at 4/1 but after they let it slip, the first set was assured for the first seeds. They found the second set easier, starting to dominate more from the hazard end as well, as Willis found herself frustratedly trying to close out points too quickly, such was the pressure she felt from Fahey and Lumley. As in the first set, Garside and Willis held to 1-all, but Fahey and Lumley took the last five straight games to secure the title.
The action at Queen’s begins to draw to a close over the next two days, with the open singles final taking place on Monday evening, followed by the open doubles final on Tuesday evening.
Match results:
2:00 PM: Robert Fahey & Nick Howell (1) def Ben Taylor-Matthews & Bryn Sayers (3) 6/3 1/6 6/0 6/3
4:00 PM: Josh Dodgson & John Woods-Casey (6) lost to Vaughan Hamilton & John Lumley (2) 4/6 5/6 6/5 3/6
6:45 PM: Claire Fahey & Tara Lumley (1) def Jess Garside & Georgie Willis (2) 6/1 6/1
Order of play for Monday (all times GMT):
6:00 PM: John Lumley (1) vs Nick Howell (2)