Lumley completes British Open double as Hamilton takes maiden open title
Howell and Fahey let 2-1 lead slip in doubles final
Vaughan Hamilton has become the newest player to win his debut Open title, pairing up with the singles champion John Lumley to defeat the first seeds Robert Fahey and Nick Howell in the final of the British Open at the Queen’s Club on Tuesday.
The final day of competition had an end-of-term feel to it, finishing off 14 days of non-stop competition across the open and women’s draws, singles and doubles, qualifiers and main draws— all on top of the Rackets World Championships and Real 10. John Lumley, fresh off his straight-sets victory in the singles final partnered with Vaughan Hamilton, playing in his first-ever Open final. It was their first tournament as a partnership, and they had lost just the one set in their path to the final in a tight four-setter against Josh Dodgson and John Woods-Casey. Their opponents, Rob Fahey and Nick Howell, had been playing together for the better part of eight years, collecting 3 Open titles as a pair and were runners-up in a World Championship final together. The experience gap was not just limited to the partnerships alone. Hamilton was born a full decade after Fahey made his first British Open doubles final, and five years after he won his first title.
The players set up their formations for the match and stuck with them all the way through. Hamilton was very much the junior partner, sent forward to the galleries while leaving Lumley to do the lion’s share of the work at the back of the court. Meanwhile, Howell and Fahey began playing server-up — with Fahey serving to Lumley — but they quickly settled into having Howell at the back of the court. Hamilton and Lumley garnered some early success, beating Howell’s volley with a series of main wall dedans. However, Fahey’s cut-volley was a potent weapon, curling into the forehand corner, leaving Lumley to have to scramble and dive into the wall. The first six games were evenly matched, as neither pair earned more than a few points lead. But towards the end of the set, Fahey and Howell were both missing their shots at the dedans high, sending the ball looping off the penthouse and opening the door for Hamilton to put away a winner from the net. The second seeds charged on to take the first set.
The second set, however, couldn’t have be more different. Fahey and Howell hit their targets more, putting more and more pressure on Lumley at the back of the court. Hamilton found himself somewhat lost in the galleries, unable to make an impact on the rally, while Howell honed in on the winning gallery. Though still able to win points, sending several games to deuce, Hamilton and Lumley were not able to win a game in the entire set. The scoreline snowballed, and even though Hamilton and Lumley were stuck at the hazard end for the second half of the set, they at no point gave up on salvaging something from it, making no attempt to concede the set to change receivers.
Fahey and Howell marched ahead into the third set as well, winning the first two games before Hamilton and Lumley could finally get on the board. The match evened off again, albeit with Fahey and Howell holding their two game buffer. Lumley was putting in a seriously impressive shift at the back, chasing everything down and barely making an error, while Hamilton pushed high, defending all the galleries on the hazard chases and getting involved in some entertaining volley battles with his opponents. But Fahey’s finishes were quality, and Howell’s volley defense was solid. The pair retained their advantage all the way from 2/0 to 5/3, but Lumley’s refusal to let a ball go by him helped claw the score back to 5-all. Howell and Fahey took the deciding game, helped by three nervous volley errors from Hamilton.
By the fourth set, Fahey and Howell held all the cards. They once again elected to stick with the original receiver setup, unchanged through the whole match, and seemed to have Lumley pinned down. By this point, the rallies were phenomenal, with all four players playing their part to perfection. Nobody was giving an inch, with winners needing to be struck several times over. Hamilton was not out of place playing with three of the top players in the world, with his volley and serve doing more than enough to trouble his opposition. Despite approaching three hours of match time, still not a hair was not out of place on Lumley’s head, even with the massive amount of retrieval he had to complete. As in the first set, the play was evenly matched, with no pair going ahead by more than a game until 3-all. But after then being stuck at the hazard end once for the better part of two games, combined with a few poorly timed balls onto the back penthouse, Fahey and Howell conceded the advantage in the set. Fahey saved a set point defending a hazard chase by pushing as high as he had all match, but lost the next on a volley error, sending the match into a deciding set.
Fahey was determined not to let the final set slip away too far, dancing across the last gallery line from his position at the galleries to intercept as many balls as possible. They once again took the first game of the set, and went 40-0 up in the second, but Lumley refused to give in, battling for every ball as they refused to let the lead get away from them. The first sign of a mental crack came in the fourth game of the set, following a rally where Fahey had played a volley on one knee as though he were proposing to the tambour. Upon losing the point, Fahey gestured in frustration at the grille corner while Howell tossed his racket into the air. Sensing their opponent’s mental exhaustion, Hamilton and Lumley grew in confidence, pressing on towards the finishing line. If he was nervous, Hamilton showed no sign of it. They pressed on through the last four games with increasing ease, winning their second championship point as Fahey dumped a ball in the net. They dropped their rackets on the floor and embraced each other, before heading to the net to shake hands.
Hamilton’s victory makes him the youngest open champion since his partner, John Lumley won his first French Open doubles with Camden Riviere in 2016, and the youngest British Open champion since Steve Virgona in 1999. With a doubles handicap of 6.2, he also becomes the highest-handicapped player to win an Open title since computerised handicaps were introduced in 2001 — surpassing Lumley’s 2016 effort as a +0.1. It also marks Lumley’s 9th open doubles championship, and the first time he has won both the singles and doubles titles at the same British Open in his career.
The players will now have a month’s break before heading to Melbourne for the Australian Open, this year coinciding with the ever-popular Boomerang tournament.
Match results:
6:00 PM: Rob Fahey & Nick Howell (1) lost to Vaughan Hamilton & John Lumley (2) 4/6 6/0 6/5 3/6 2/6