IRTPA Player's Championships boasts entire World Top 10 on return to calendar in Aiken
Sayers, Williams and Dodgson to headline IRTPA Satellite
The IRTPA Players Championships — previously known as just the IRTPA Championships — will boast every member of the world’s top 10 players upon its return to the international real tennis calendar in Aiken in October.
The tournament, which was historically the British Professional Championships, has not been held since the COVID-19 pandemic as it was not restarted after the interruption to play. Now in 2025, the Aiken Tennis Club has offered to host the championships. The championships will take place in the United States for the first time, marking the first time that the United States will have hosted three ranking points events in a calendar year.
Fresh from their exploits at the World Championships this week in Newport, the top seeds will be Camden Riviere and John Lumley. Both will be favourites to win through their respective halves of the draw, with the prospect of a fourteenth tournament final between the pair looming. Given Riviere won the World Championship inside two days, Lumley will be keen to prove that his victory in the US Open earlier in the year was not an aberration. Riviere will be tough to beat on the court that introduced him to real tennis, though Lumley’s recent experience playing Nick Howell in the eliminators could prove valuable.
Several other players will be keen to ensure that a Riviere-Lumley matchup never eventuates. Chief among them will be Nick Howell, who, as the home professional, will know the court intimately well, and will benefit from boisterous home crowd support in all of his matches. However, Howell is drawn to play his kryptonite in the quarter-finals in the shape of fifth seed Robert Fahey, having only defeated the former World Champion on two occasions. The now-retired Fahey’s form going into any tournament continues to be a mystery. In 2025, Fahey has proven he is still capable of beating the best in the world with his victory in the US Professional Singles, but also capable of an underperformance with his loss to Robert Shenkman in the David Cull Trophy. Question marks also linger over Steve Virgona’s participation, with scans confirming he has broken a bone in his right wrist in his victorious French Open final.
Meanwhile, Ben Taylor-Matthews will be keen to impress in his first outing as a US-based professional, having registered an impressive win over Lumley at the US Professional Singles earlier in the year. He enters the draw as the number four seed but has been drawn into a potential semi-final against Riviere. The other main draw contenders are Leon Smart — who will seek redemption for his first round defeat at the French Open and who will have a tough first round opponent in Lewis Williams — and Robert Shenkman who is drawn by seed to John Lumley in the quarter final.
The event will also see the return of the IRTPA Satellite, open to all entrants outside of the top 8. The quarter-finalists in the Satellite will qualify into the first round of the IRTPA Player’s Championships. As there were 19 entrants, 5 will enter the Player’s draw directly while also playing the Satellite, with 6 who will need to win through the first round of the Satellite to win through to the Player’s.
The first seed of the Satellite will be Bryn Sayers — subject to Virgona’s participation — and will be a strong candidate for the overall win. It will be Sayers’s first appearance in the USA since surgery took him out of the bulk of the 2024/25 season. Sayers has also drawn a first round match in the Player’s against Fahey, in what could well be the pick of the round. Also in contention for the Satellite are Josh Dodgson — who won the US Professional Satellite in Newport earlier in the year and defeated Steve Virgona in the first round of the US Professional Singles — Lewis Williams and Vaughan Hamilton, who will each back up from quarter-finals at the French Open. Although not seeded, Max Trueman also drew a bye to move straight into the Satellite quarter-final and Player’s main draw, facing Williams in the former and Howell in the latter. Fighting it out for the remaining Player’s draw places will be Jack Josephs, Tony Hollins, Josh Smith, Henry Henman, Adam Player and Pete Dickinson, with all barring Hollins playing in Aiken for the first time.
The Taylor Cup, traditionally held alongside the IRTPA Championships, will not be contested.
The event will be key for anyone with ambitions for the 2027 World Race, with 35,000 points available, including 9,210 for the winner and 6,140 for the runner-up. With Riviere having won the 2025 World Championship, the fight now truly begins to determine a challenger for 2027, with one of four Eliminator spots up for grabs. Lumley holds a strong lead with 31,190 points, ahead of Fahey with 24,917, Taylor-Matthews with 22,555 and Howell with 17,928. Virgona’s French Open win puts him into contention in 5th with 11,092, while Shenkman’s semi final haul pulled him clear into 6th with 10,487.
The IRTPA Player’s Championship will run from Wednesday 15 October through to Sunday 19 October. The IRTPA Satellite will run from Saturday 11 October through to Tuesday 14 October.
IRTPA Satellite Draw:
First round:
Jack Josephs vs Tony Hollins
Josh Smith vs Henry Henman
Adam Player vs Pete Dickinson
Quarter-finals:
Bryn Sayers (1) vs Winner of Josephs vs Hollins
Winner of Smith vs Henman vs Vaughan Hamilton (4)
Josh Dodgson (3) vs Winner of Player vs Dickinson
Max Trueman vs Lewis Williams (2)
IRTPA Player’s Championship Draw:
Camden Riviere (1) vs Winner of Smith vs Henman
Vaughan Hamilton vs Steve Virgona (6)
Leon Smart (7) vs Lewis Williams
Josh Dodgson vs Ben Taylor-Matthews (4)
Nick Howell (3) vs Max Trueman
Bryn Sayers vs Robert Fahey (3)
Robert Shenkman (8) vs Winner of Josephs vs Hollins
Winner of Player vs Dickinson vs John Lumley (2)
