Real Tennis Fantasy League Round-up 2025-26
The Champions Trophy draws a close to this year’s Fantasy League. Who finished the year on top?
The Champions Trophy at the Royal Tennis Court brought down the curtain on the 2025-26 Real Tennis Fantasy League over the weekend. Nick Howell banished the demons from his defeat in the 2025 final, delivering a masterclass against Steve Virgona to take the Champions Trophy title for the second time. Here’s a roundup of all the news for the Real Tennis Fantasy League for the season following the Champions Trophy, alongside plans for the future.
News
The Champions Trophy format never fails to deliver when it comes to close matches and big strategic calls. The qualifying matches saw four Champions Trophy debutants try their hand at making the main draw, with Nino Merola and Vaughan Hamilton winning all their matches (just.) The main draw broadly went with seedings, with the potential for some players meeting each other twice in the same event. Both finalists Nick Howell and Steve Virgona needed to go through the Friday repechage matches, seeing off the threat from Bryn Sayers and Robert Shenkman respectively. Both semi finals went the full three sets as well, but in Sunday’s Final it was the man from Aiken who put on a show, seeing off Steve Virgona 6/2 6/2 in barely an hour. Many congratulations to Nick on his second title!
Points awarded
With no doubles event, there were only possibilities for Big Win bonuses and 2% pick bonuses. Two Big Win bonuses came from qualifying (one for Zak Eadle against Lewis Williams; and one for Claire Fahey against Will Flynn). In the main draw, Ben Taylor-Matthews earned a big win from his quarter final win against Virgona, who in turn earned a big win over Robert Shenkman in the second quarter final match. Nick’s win over Steve also earned him a big win bonus.
The Champions Trophy only has 14 entrants, so there’s often a fair spread of picks across players - only 2 players (Clare Fahey and Benedict Yorston) were eligible for the 2% pick bonus.
Points run-down
The full points run-down, with all bonuses included, is:
Nick Howell: 48 points+
Steve Virgona: 33 points+
Ben Taylor-Matthews: 24 points+
Claire Fahey: 18 points+^
Rob Fahey: 16 points
Zak Eadle: 9 points+
Robert Shenkman: 8 points
Bryn Sayers: 8 points
Nino Merola: 8 points
Vaughan Hamilton: 8 points
Benedict Yorston: 2 points^
Lewis Williams: 1 point
Will Flynn: 1 point
+ inc Big Win bonus
^ 2% picks bonus applied
The final leaderboard and main headlines from Round 11 are below. Last year’s League winner TopDoy (not me) played their Tournament Boost to immense effect, their huge 200+ point haul barging their way into the overall top 5. But it’s Novak from Hobart, who took the overall lead after the World Doubles Championship in April, that takes the title by 33 points over Men Taylor-Batthews. Congratulations to Novak for winning the 2025-26 Real Tennis Fantasy League!
A shoutout must go to our friends in Hobart for this season. Hobart is represented by three players, and they all finished in the top 4 globally - a very impressive achievement all round, and great to have such strong support from Australia for this game!
What’s next?
Attention will switch shortly to the 26/27 Real Tennis Fantasy League season. The website rtfantasyleague.com will stay live with the 25/26 season for a few more days, so you can check your progress over the last 12 months. Registrations for the 26/27 season will open in mid-August, in plenty of time for the French Open in September. More information to follow soon!
The 26/27 season is likely to follow the same template as the 25/26 season, with really only small rule tweaks if necessary. The main principles will remain the same though - a budget for the season, prices on each player, most points wins. If you have any feedback or rule changes you’d want to see, drop a comment below or get in touch by any other method. I’m all ears and there’s no such thing as a stupid idea!