Howell outbids Taylor-Matthews to host World Championship Eliminator in Aiken

Lumley vs Virgona defaults to Home and Away series after both players fail to bid

The identities and venues of the First Round Eliminators for the 2025 Real Tennis World Championship have been confirmed by the International World Championship Committee (IWCC).

At the end of the World Race following the conclusion of the 2024 British Open, Camden Riviere (94,326 points) lead the race, followed by John Lumley (59,589), Nick Howell (55,159), Ben Taylor-Matthews (39,460) and Steve Virgona (37,226). As the defending champion, Riviere by-passes the Eliminators and will await a challenger to emerge from the Eliminators process.

The remaining four players have all accepted their invitations to participate in the Eliminators. The matches are played according to seed based on their position in the World Race, with Lumley to play Virgona and Howell to play Taylor-Matthews.

Following their acceptance, the players had the opportunity to bid to host the match at a nominated home club. Howell successfully outbid Taylor-Matthews to host their match in Aiken. It will be played as a best-of-13 set match over three days, mimicking the format of the final. Taylor-Matthew’s bid was originally higher than Howell’s, by $9505 to $8500. However, the bidding rules allow the better seeded player to increase their bid should they be within 20% of their opponent. Howell excersied this right, increasing his bid to $11406.

The Lumley and Virgona match has been defaulted to a home-and-away series as neither player elected to bid. The first match will be held in Chicago (Virgona’s home court), followed a week later by the second match in Philadelphia (Lumley’s home court). Should the fixture be tied, a third match will be played, also in Philadelphia. All matches will be best-of-five games, and the scores in each match are not aggregated into a final score.

The first round eliminator matches will be held in the window 17-30 March 2025.

Bids have also been received for the Final Eliminator. Lumley and Howell have placed bids for Philadelphia and Aiken respectively, with Howell out-bidding Lumley. So should Howell reach the Final Eliminator, it will be played in Aiken. If Lumley reaches it without Howell, it will be in Philadelphia. Else, a Taylor-Matthews vs Virgona Final Eliminator would be home-and-away. The match will be held somwhere in the window 12-25 May 2025.

Combined with the Women’s World Championship in May, US Pro Singles in June, both in Newport, the US Open in late February in Washington and the USCTA National League in New York in April, the announced venues will mean that 6 of the 8 membership clubs in the US will host top level real tennis in the front half of 2025, with only Tuxedo and Boston missing out (Lakewood and Sand Valley do not maintain memberships). It will also mark a continuous run of major real tennis events to be held in the US between the Australian Open in January and the Champions Trophy in July, except for the IRTPA Super League in April.

The World Race for 2027 will also kick off shortly, with points being reset at the start of January for the 2025 Australian Open.

For more information, the full press release is available from the IRTPA: https://www.irtpa.com/venues-for-eliminators-2025/