Nick James and Neil Mackenzie have qualified for the British Open doubles main draw, overcoming a spirited fight from Alexander Marino-Hume and Benedict Yorston in three sets in qualifying at Queen’s on Friday. Meanwhile, Zak Eadle and Claire Fahey are also through to the main draw, defeating the Royal Tennis Court pair of Jack Josephs and Rhys Williams in straight sets.
Doubles qualifying began with the first round match as Alexander Marino-Hume and Benedict Yorston took on James Medlow and Charlie Braham, the latter drafted in at the last minute owing to the withdrawal of Medlow’s original partner. Despite joining forces late, Medlow and Braham proved a very natural pairing. Both were comfortable and trusting with each other’s position on court, meaning everything that Marino-Hume and Yorston could throw at them was covered. They sent a succession of floated balls past Yorston into the dedans, who had to cover a lot at the back given how high Marino-Hume was stationed. Medlow and Braham won the first four games of the match, setting them up well to take the first set. They dropped the fifth but otherwise cruised to taking the set.
Yorston and Marino-Hume found some resistance at the start of the second, winning the first two games on the back of Yorston’s unrelenting retrieval at the service end. Braham and Medlow were able to tame some of their errors, bringing the set back to 3-all and then 4-all. It irritated Yorston greatly, who was chucking his racket around in disgust at his play. Medlow and Braham went ahead 5/4 and had two match points. The first went out of court off the penthouse, while the second was a long rally where they never had the advantage. Two points later, when playing a backhand drive, Braham tweaked something in his back, clutching it immediately and going to ground. It was immediately clear that Braham wouldn’t be able to continue. They offered to shake hands and retire the match.
The second match in the first round of qualifying was between the Royal Tennis Court pair of Jack Josephs and Rhys Williams and the Middlesex University pair of Jack Carter and Will Burns. The match proceeded at a rapid rate, with quick restes ending in racket errors or winners, with few chases, deuces or long exchanges to slow things down. The Hampton Court pair pulled ahead in the first set, but every point won by the Middlesex pair was cheered on by the partisan crowd. Despite losing the first set, Burns and Carter pulled out a lead in the second, thanks to Burns’s heroic efforts at the back of the service court. Josephs and Williams dug in defensively, but Burns’s boasting and pace helped the Middlesex pair gain the ascendancy. Middlesex went 4/1 up following Josephs volleying a serve when not receiving, causing a stroke to be called against them. With Josephs and Williams still in disarray, Burns and Carter pressed on to take the second set, much to the joy of the crowd.
Into the third set, and Josephs and Williams were still struggling to find an effective way to work together to contain Burns’s excesses. Even picking off Carter wasn’t fruitful, as the junior pro was holding his own in his high position at the net. Carter and Burns took the first two games of the third set, before Williams lifted. By playing more solidly, he lifted Josephs in turn. They won the last six games of the match, with Burns unable to resist any longer. The Royal Tennis Court pair’s victory put them into the second qualifying round.
After a short break, the evening session of qualifying kicked off the second round, with Marino-Hume and Yorston now taking on the local pairing of Neil Mackenzie and Nick James. Marino-Hume and Yorston put into practice the lessons they had learned from their near-miss earlier in the afternoon, bringing Marino-Hume into the game to challenge James as the up-player, allowing Yorston to out-rally Mackenzie at the back. They took a four-game lead in the first 10 minutes of the match, but then Mackenzie and James started to bring their power game. Marino-Hume and Yorston didn’t get a set point until the 5/4 game, a long and tactical reste with Yorston trying to keep the ball away from James defending at the net, eventually ending with a flush back wall. Nonetheless, Marino-Hume won the set moments later with the shot of the day — a forehand volley onto the tambour defending an out-of-position Yorston.
Despite the loss of the first set, Mackenzie and James retained the initiative for the second. Mackenzie was able to make life difficult for Yorston, using the court to push him into difficult positions to chase down the ball and loop back a response. Marino-Hume and Yorston didn’t pick up another game until the second game of the third set, having won none in the second set. Picking up the game gave renewed confidence to Marino-Hume and Yorston, who then won two more to go 3/1 up. The fifth game saw some of the longest rallies of the match, with Yorston scrambling back everything off the tambour and putting it down Mackenzie’s forehand over and over again. After seven deuces, Mackenzie and James won the game, backing up with the sixth after Yorston’s protest of a not-up call fell on the marker’s deaf ears. Mackenzie and James kept winning games despite Yorston’s padel-like volleys in front of the tambour. They kept their streak going through the remainder of the set, securing their qualification to the main draw.
The last of the doubles qualifying matches saw Josephs and Williams return to the court to play Claire Fahey and Zak Eadle. Chases were hard to come by, with Fahey patrolling up and down the main wall on the return of serve, while Eadle’s forehand volleys at the grille were unstoppable. Josephs and Williams had to dig in defensively to stay in the first set, though their cause was helped by a number of unforced errors and stray shots from Eadle. After Josephs and Williams went ahead during the 4-all game, Eadle and Fahey experimented with putting Eadle at the back as Fahey was getting beaten by hard, low drives. In the meantime, Josephs and Williams forced the set into a deciding game. Eadle was able to bring some heat to his shots, beating Josephs’s volley to win the set.
Eadle opted to stay on Williams’s serve for the second set. They also persisted with Eadle at the back, which gave them a punishing option off the back penthouse even if it meant Fahey’s gallery volleys were a slight weakness and that chases were more readily conceded. The pairs were locked in a long deuce game at 2/1, before Fahey and Eadle’s lead started to snowball across the rest of the set with Eadle’s aggressive play impressive. Their win puts them into the main draw to play fellow qualifiers James and Mackenzie.
The British Open singles main draw begins on Sunday with action across both courts at Queen’s. The women’s qualifying takes place on Monday, with open doubles action beginning on Wednesday.
Match results:
1:00 PM: Charlie Braham & James Medlow lost to Alexander Marino-Hume & Benedict Yorston 6/1 5/5 ret.
2:30 PM: Jack Josephs & Rhys Williams def Jack Carter & Will Burns 6/3 1/6 6/2
4:30 PM: Nick James & Neil Mackenzie def Alexander Marino-Hume & Benedict Yorston 4/6 6/0 6/3
6:00 PM: Zak Eadle & Claire Fahey def Jack Josephs & Rhys Williams 6/5 6/1
Order of play for Sunday (all times GMT):
Queen’s East:
11:00 AM: Max Trueman vs Levi Gale
1:00 PM: Nino Merola vs James Medlow (Q)
3:00 PM: Benedict Yorston vs Bertie Vallat
5:00 PM: Zak Eadle vs Henry Henman
Queen’s West:
11:00 AM: Jamie Giddins (Q) vs Alexander Marino-Hume (Q)
1:00 PM: Will Flynn (Q) vs Vaughan Hamilton
3:00 PM: Darren Long vs Oliver Pridmore
5:00 PM: John Woods-Casey vs Claire Fahey