Hamilton & Vallat into French Open doubles semis with narrow victory in youth face-off
Henman & Flynn fall agonisingly short in high-quality display
The French Open doubles event has begun with three quarter-finals in Paris on Wednesday, the highlight of which was a narrow victory by Bertie Vallat and Vaughan Hamilton in their match against Henry Henman and Will Flynn. In the other half of the draw, Levi Gale and Lewis Williams, and Robert Shenkman and Leon Smart recorded straightforward victories to set up a tantalising face-off in the semi-finals.
The first doubles quarter-final of the event was a glimpse into real tennis’s future, as the four players on court had an average age of just 21. Bertie Vallat teamed up with Vaughan Hamilton while Henry Henman joined forces with Will Flynn. Of the four, only Hamilton had previously won an Open doubles quarter-final — in the same event 12 months prior with John Woods-Casey. To start the match, Henman and Flynn were the aggressors, with Henman prancing around the second gallery line and Flynn at the back on enforcer duty. But Hamilton and Vallat were able to neutralise the threat with their tight railroad serves, preventing chases and holding the service end for periods at a time. They won five of the last six games of the first set, with Hamilton’s sound defenses proving a lynchpin for their success and enabling Vallat to push into the galleries and attack the volley.
Henman chose to continue receiving Hamilton’s serve going into the second set. After losing the first two games — aided by a pair of back-to-back fluke dedans — Henman dropped back, sending Flynn up to the galleries. The pair were playing out of the Tim Chisholm doubles playbook, with Henman still floating forward to cover the main wall at times. They won the next four games, before a fightback from Hamilton and Vallat brought it to 4-all, then 5-all. In the deciding game, Henman hit a last gallery and a good cut-volley chase, but on the change of ends, Hamilton stepped up and hit three even better cut-volleys to seal the set.
Once again, Flynn and Henmen opted to keep Henmen receiving Hamilton’s serve for the third set. Flynn and Henman had their strongest run of the match, with Flynn returning to the back of the court and Henman at the galleries. They stretched out a 5/2 lead before getting stuck at the hazard end, with Vallat and Hamilton slowly pulling it back to 5-all. Each of the restes in the deciding game was decided by small margins, but each fell in favour of Flynn and Henman. The fourth set was the spiciest of the match, with Henman giving his opponents stare-downs after he hit a winner and Hamilton chucking his racket after conceding a tambour winning gallery. Again, the battle was over the service end — the only place either pair could make progress — and chases were a prize commodity. For the fourth set in a row, the set came down to the wire. In the deciding game, Hamilton’s defense came to the fore, keeping out every one of Flynn and Henman’s forces to win the match and lock in a date with the top seeds Nick Howell and Steve Virgona.
There was a hubbub around the club at the start of the second match as journalists and cameramen from Canal+ Sport appeared to film their feature on the event. In the camera’s focus was Lewis Williams and Levi Gale playing the main draw debutants Benedict Yorston and Jack Josephs. Williams and Gale showed off the experience of the partnership, moving in sync meaning there was no space for Yorston or Josephs to hit into. Josephs and Yorston were fighting hard but couldn’t win enough of the key points to convert their points tally into games.
A particular highlight was Yorston repeatedly dancing up at hazard the line trying to defend chases, jumping several feet into the air to reach his volleys. Another was a leaping ‘tweener straight to the grille from Gale, while Williams was blasting dedans from all over the court. Though entertaining, the result was never in doubt — except for on the second match point where Gale demolished a ball into hazard second gallery assuming he’d beaten a better than second gallery chase, only for the marker to remind him that the chase was actually hazard better than second gallery. Yorston and Josephs won three additional games before Williams and Gale could finally, truly, draw the game to a close.
The final quarter-final was between Robert Shenkman and Leon Smart — a new pairing for the 2025/26 season — and Max Trueman and Baudouin Huynh-Lenhardt, the latter filling in after Louis Gordon withdrew from the tournament. Shenkman and Smart were a class above, rapidly rolling in the games as the Canal+ TV cameras desperately tried to get footage of Huynh-Lenhardt, the last Frenchman in any of the draws. Shenkman and Smart won the first set in just 12 minutes. Trueman and Huynh-Lenhardt were able to must a little more resistance in the subsequent sets, but Shenkman and Smart were relaxed and in control of match throughout.
Nick Howell and Steve Virgona, as the number one seeds, did not partake in the proceedings as they received a bye directly to the semi-finals. Play continues on Thursday with the singles semi-finals, with the doubles semi-finals to take place on Friday.
Match results:
11:00 AM: Henry Henman & Will Flynn lost to Vaughan Hamilton & Bertie Vallat 4/6 5/6 6/5 5/6
1:00 PM: Jack Josephs & Benedict Yorston lost to Lewis Williams & Levi Gale 2/6 2/6 3/6
3:00 PM: Max Trueman & Baudouin Huynh-Lenhardt lost to Robert Shenkman & Leon Smart (2) 0/6 2/6 3/6
Order of play for Thursday (all times CEST):
5:00 PM: Levi Gale vs Steve Virgona (2)
7:00 PM: Nick Howell (1) vs Robert Shenkman (4)