The Unofficial Real Tennis World Championship

Tracking a heavyweight title through all competitive real tennis

In 1966, England won the football World Cup for the first — and only — time. In 1967, Scotland — who had not qualified for the previous year’s World Cup — defeated England at Wembley Stadium, and declared themselves World Champions as a result.

Since 2002, football statisticians have been tracking the Unofficial Football World Championship (UFWC) in international matches, backdated to the first football match between England and Scotland in 1872. The rules are simple: anyone who beats the current title holder becomes the new title holder.

Indeed, the Real Tennis World Championships are played in much the same way, with a new champion crowned each time they defeat the incumbent champion in the World Championship Challenge, excepting the four champions who claimed the title upon the retirement of the incumbent. But what if — for the sake of argument — the World Championship was at stake in every match the incumbent played?

Introducing: the Unofficial Real Tennis World Championship (URTWC). Like its football counterpart — but unlike the Unofficial Real Tennis World Rankings — this isn’t meant to be a serious proposition; rather, it is a light-hearted exploration of the recent history of the game. To start, we use the data from RealTennisOnline (RTO), which dates back to August 2001. Any level, competitive fixture is fair game, so long as it was recorded in RTO. Given there is multiple centuries of history of the game before 2001 where records are incomplete, it seems only fair to assign the first title holder of the URTWC to the then 7-year official World Champion Robert Fahey.

Fahey’s first defence of the URTWC — his first recorded match in RTO — was a National League match at Cambridge against Spike Willcocks, which he won 6/1 6/2. Given Fahey’s, and later Camden Riviere’s, dominance of the sport, there is no surprise that the pair would dominate the URTWC. Also, as a lot of real tennis is played in knock-out brackets, any time the URTWC enters a knock-out stage it will leave with the title holder of the tournament.

Fahey first relinquished the URTWC in the club championship of the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club to Paul Tabley in September 2002, though would regain it a month later at the NSW Open. Tim Chisholm would briefly hold the title following that year’s British Open, before conceding it back at the World Championship at Hampton Court a few weeks later. A week later, Steve Virgona would claim his first title in a National League match at the Harbour Club, passing it through Nick Wood and Chris Bray back to Tim Chisholm by the 2003 US Open.

Over the next 7 years, Fahey would dominate the URTWC. He would give it away for a couple of weeks or months at a time but would inevitably win it back. The Australian Open would prove problematic for Fahey, losing the title in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011 to Virgona (thrice) or Ruraidh Gunn (twice), with tournaments played at Romsey, Melbourne and Hobart. These losses meant that the URTWC was not contested in either the 2006 or the 2010 official World Championships. National League was also a happy hunting ground for those seeking the title, with Bray in 2004 and Wood in 2007 and 2008 (twice) briefly winning the crown. Wood’s subsequent losses gave Bryn Sayers and Camden Riviere their first taste of the title in 2008.

The period from the 2010 Australian Open to the 2014 French Open saw the busiest flurry of activity for the URTWC. Fahey, Virgona, Chisholm, Sayers, Riviere and James Stout all held the title multiple times with every match-up between any of them a bruising fight that anybody could win. Fahey’s last long run ran from the 2011 French Open to the 2012 British Open, before holding it for a single day at the 2013 Schochet Cup.

By this time, Riviere’s dominance of the sport was emerging from its infancy. After winning it back from Fahey he would briefly loan it out to John Lumley in the 2013 USCTA National League before winning it back via Stout a few months later. Fahey won the 2014 World Championship in Melbourne against Riviere, taking the URTWC at the same time, but only for a month before Riviere won the following Schochet Cup. Riviere then won the next 95 defences, up until the famous 2018 World Championship, where Fahey secured an upset win at Queen’s.

Chris Chapman was the next player to ink their name on the title, defeating Fahey at the Champions Trophy semi-final immediately following the 2018 World Championships, before losing it the next day back to Riviere. The American would then hold on for another 105 defences before succumbing to Lumley at the recent 2025 US Open. His run was ended by Ben Taylor-Matthews, who defeated Lumley at the 2025 Schochet Cup semi-final. His tenure also lasted a day, with the championship once again returning with its inaugural occupant, Robert Fahey. Fahey has since passed the torch onto the fourteenth player to hold the crown — Robert Shenkman — after losing the David Cull Trophy final at Lord’s .

As of today, the URTWC is again at a cross-roads, with new names entering the fray alongside the seasoned veterans. For the third time in its history the URTWC will not be contested at the official World Championships in Newport. The question remains — which will be the dominant question at the top of the game for the next several years — is the current rate of change of holders an aberation, or the new normal? That is, have we re-entered an era of tennis where anyone can beat anyone on their day or will Riviere — or another — reestablish dominance.

Unofficial Real Tennis World Championship holders (by number of days):

1. Camden Riviere (12 years, 139 days)

2. Robert Fahey (8 years, 110 days)

3. Steve Virgona (289 days)

4. Tim Chisholm (275 days)

5. James Stout (169 days)

6. Nick Wood (113 days)

7. John Lumley (106 days)

8. Bryn Sayers (93 days)

9. Ruaraidh Gunn (34 days)

10. Paul Tabley (20 days)

11. Chris Bray (20 days)

12. Chris Chapman (1 day)

13. Ben Taylor-Matthews (1 day)

14. Robert Shenkman (1 day and counting)

Robert Shenkman, current URTWC holder, at the Champions Trophy 2025. Photo credit: Tim Edwards