British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Adding Liam ...

1. Savannah Dada-Mascoll - An unexpected history making breakout year. Highest singles ranking in Appalachian State history at No 5. First App State player to qualifier for NCAAs, All-American and NCAA quarter-finalist. Carolina region co-champion. Full narrative in post 3

2. Ben Jones - has won the joint most titles of any player this season with 9 as of 08/12. All of those are doubles titles, 5 at M25 level and with 7 different partners. Plaudits for being our player with the equal most titles!

3. * Mimi Xu * - in her final year as a junior, reached the semi-finals of junior Wimbledon while mostly concentrating on making a successful transition to senior tennis. She won the best title of her senior career at the W100 in Wrexham and has raised her ranking from around WR500 at the start of the year to around WR250.

4. Hamish Stewart - Hamish also was prolific in winning titles this year, taking 8 in total as of end of November; 1 singles and 7 doubles at ITF level. He also managed to significantly improve his rankings, at the age of 26, almost halving both singles (to around 338) and doubles to 249) in a year where he made significant strides. Expecting more from him in 2025, but those 8 titles get him on the list.

5. Jake Fearnley - Starting the year at WR99, Jake maintained a top 100 ranking throughout the year, despite struggling in the second half of 2025 as he embarked on only his second year on the main tour. He reached a CH of 49 and was GB #2 for part of the year, having won his first main draw matches at ATP500 and ATP1000 level in 205, as well as rounds at the Australian, French and US Opens.

6. GB ITF men's singles players - at least began the year as ITF players, almost all then below WR 350 - as of 01/12 more ITF singles tities than any other nation ( 61 with Italy second on 58 ), with a particularly impressive record in M25s ( 36, with France second on 25 ). We started the year with 9 players in the top 350, with the then essentially ITF players (a number have advanced to challengers as the year has progressed), then making that 12 in the top 400 and 19 in the top 500. We are ending the year with 21 in the top 350, 25 in the top 400 (more than double), and 29 in the top 500 (for so long in the past 20 seemed an elusive target), with 16 of these 29 achieving CHs in 2025. All in all, remarkable.

7. Arthur Fery - after returning from a long spell of injury, Arthur began the year by winning the M25 title at Roehampton, unseeded and without losing a set. In August, he won his second title of the year and his first at challenger level at the Barranquilla CH75. In between, he won his first main draw match at Wimbledon and secured a win on his debut at the Davis Cup. He ends the year having qualified for an ATP250 for the first time and at a new CH inside the top 200.

8. Victoria Allen - having reached WR 671 as an 18 yo in 2019, then largely out of the collective consciousness for a number of years, particularly with being at college in the US, the now 24 yo has had a really good proper initial pro season. W35 Quebec City singles title plus 4 doubles titles, the highest being W50 Nottingham (with Millie Rajecki). Began the year unranked, as of 01/12 she has a singies ranking of 436 and a doubles ranking of 328, both close to her CHs. GB #14 in singles.

9. Oliver Crawford - after a largely uneventful first season since switching which saw him start his second year ranked down in the 400s he's given us more a sense of what he's capable of in his second year, breaking back into the top 200 for a CH 183 in September and reaching his first Challenger final since becoming a British player and the third of his career

10. Lui Maxted - one of the standout players this year; hes another player who took 8 titles, 3 in singles. But his ranking shot up from below 1000 to just in the top 500 in singles and similarly in doubles; in fact, apart from Toby Samuel, Lui is the highest rising singles player of all of our men and women, in terms of absolute rankings - well over 600 places. And the board took to him. he was nominated 3 times for player of the month, in the top ten or so of players to get multiple nominations.

11. Jan Choinski - from WR 173 at the start of the year has risen to a CH 125 and GB #4, claiming 4 Challenger singles titles including 2 at 125 level in a few weeks in September and October. Particularly looking at second half of the year, he seems still on the up.

12. Wake Forest University Brits (Luca Pow & Charlie Robertson) - Charlie and Luca made outstanding contributions in helping Wake Forest win the NCAA championship, the ACC regular season title, the ITA national indoor championships and a record 40 team wins. Charlie went on a 2 month unbeaten run and gained a reputation of being the most clutch player by regularly winning the team point that gave Wake Forest victory. Luca went on an incredible 21 match unbeaten run in the midst of 30 wins in the Spring and backed that up in the autumn by reaching the NCAA singles QF giving a calendar year college record of 42 wins 7 losses.

13. Brooke Black - Starting at around 1275, she managed to rise over 550 places to near 700, and did more in doubles with a 700 plus position rise. And she did this on a partial schedule, she only played 28 singles and 25 doubles matches. No spectacular titles or wins, just solid, consistent progress over the season.

14. George Loffhagen - started the year WR 579 with a CH 333, by October he hsd soared up to WR 200. Won his first challenger singles title, Segovia 75, plus 4 M25 singles titles. Can go missing for a time between tournaments, and it seems at times within matches, but has reaffirmed what a talent he has with the ability to go a fair bit higher.

15. Emily Appleton - who I believe is one of our most hard working players, competing virtually every week in both singles and doubles. This year she achieved new career highs of 347 in singles and 77 in doubles, ending the year at 376 and 87 respectively. In doubles she won a 75K level tournament and made the final of a WTA125

16. Billy Harris - one of our hardest working players, Billy has struggled to get past the first round for much of the year after an initial good spell in India in February - but in September he finally won a title at Challenger level, the CH75 in Cassis. Up until that point, he was the highest ranked player without a challenger title. Despite a generally difficult year, he ended the year with the much the same ranking as he started, at around WR125.

17. Cam Norrie - Cam began the year in poor form, slipping down to WR91 at the beginning of May, but he started to turn his year around after that. He reached the fourth round of the French Open and the quarter finals at Wimbledon before capping the year out by beating WR1 Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Masters and reaching the final of the Metz ATP250. All this has lifted him to a year end ranking of WR27.

18. Luke Johnson - Luke won 3 doubles titles in 2025, all partnered by Sander Arends: the ATP500 in Barcelona, the ATP250 in Hong Kong and the Monza CH100. Luke and Sander also reached the Quarter Finals of the French Open, beating Cash/Glasspool in the previous round. He achieved a career high of WR28 in July and, despite missing several weeks over the summer due to injury, ends the year ar WR38, a rise of 20 places from the end of 2024.

19. Jack Pinnington Jones - still just 22 yo, won his first Challenger titles, Nottingham 50 and Winston Salem 75 plus RU in the Ilkey 125. Also a straight sets R1 win at Wimbledon over Tomas Etcheveery, then WR 53. Big rankings jump forward from starting the year at WR / CH 376 to then reach a CH 177 and at 01/12 be WR 205 and GB #10. He's not anywhere near the Billy level for tournament activity and still seems a bit inconsistent but when he has been on, he has often been very on, a big performer, and with 287 points from 10 positive counters he ranks GB #5 for points per counter.

20. Alice Gillan - the 27 yo ended last year at WR 616 with a CH 614. She steadily rose 150 places to a CH 466 in July, being WR 491 at 08/12. Won 2 W15 singies singles titles, in Spain and Malta, though her best week was probably being RU in the Nottingham W35 in May where she beat former WR 26 Tamira Paszek (then WR 389) before ultimately losing in a 3 set final to the top seed Marni Banks WR 321.

21. Harry Wendelken - 2025 has proven a breakthrough year for Harry, someone a lot of people thought could go far. In October 2025, he won his first challenger title, the CH50 title in Crete (Challenger 6) where he came through as a lucky loser, beating players like Dennis Novak and Zapata Miralles. From a start point of 673 he rose to 315 in the rankings, halving his ranking over the year. One of several British challenger title winners and he deserves the plaudits like the others!

22. * Hollie Smart * - Aged 16, moved from JR 250 to 76 and making small waves in senior tennis too where in the Nottingham W35 in May she reached the singles MD QF from qualifying, beating 2 top 600 players including Ranah. Won both the U16 and U18 LTA Nationals doubles titles in April, won a J300 doubles title in Spain in September, and in December reached the Bradenton J300 singles QF, beating 2 strong seeds on the way.

23. Joe Salisbury/Neal Skupski - on one level, this has been a stunning year for the lads. Joe rose from 33 to 10 and Neal from 18 to 9 in the world. In making that happen, they reached two finals of Grand Slam events, the French and US Opens. They capped that off with an unbeaten run at the ATP Tour Finals before a final loss there. Joe even managed to reach the Wimbledon mixed doubles final. Of the 5 biggest mens doubles events in the world, they were in 3. If theyd won just one of those, we wouldnt be bothering with wildcards, theyd quite possibly be players of the season, period. 

24. Johannus Monday - in his first full year on tour moved up from WR 371 to WR 236 at 08/12 ( with a CH 212 in October ). Won 2 M25 singles titles early in the year and, after a tough looking / learning few months, in October reached a Challenger 100 final in between 2 Challenger 75 SFs.

25. Blu Baker - Blu missed all of 2024 dealing with elbow surgery, a ruptured eardrum and mononucleosis. He had previously reached 608 in the rankings. In 2025, he came back and put it all behind him. Two M15 singles titles and an M25 doubles title later, hed won 69% of his singles matches this season and fought back to 673. An amazing effort and surely he will be well into the top 500 if he keeps fit into 2026. 

26. Liam Broady - WR 788 in the first rankings of 2025 after injury and a worrying concussion incident, Liam.spent much of the year putting in the hard yards, trying to refind himself, on the ITF circuit, winning 4 M15/M15+H titles along the way but still tough work, and he was still WR 605 as late as June. In November though it was a joy to again see so much more the real Liam when from qualifying he reached the Lyon Challenger 75 final ( his first challenger final in over 2 years ), beating WRs 103 and 128 along the way before losing to Struff WR 100. Was up to WR 305 on 08/12. Welcome back, Liam, here's to much more in 2026.

*-* denotes players in December PoM vote as well and therefore may end up not needing a wildcard

JonH comes home wrote:

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In case anyone wonders - for the voting there will be as many groups to vote on as there are wildcards. The players are being split randomly and evenly into groups, as the nominations come in. I actually have 4 different group structures - one covering each of 3, 4 , 5 or 6 wildcards and therefore voting groups!!

It is completely random how they are being allocated using an AI prompt. So no one needs be concerned that nominating in any particular way will confer any sort of advantage or disadvantage - it is what it is. As they are wildcards, there is no attempt to balance out any groups between men and women, singles and doubles. It lands where it lands!!

As December nominations take shape, the number of likely wild cards will become clearer. If a player gets through December PoM and into PoS, they will be taken out of the wildcard voting (and the groups readjusted accordingly!). At this stage, there are no December nominations and, thus, it isnt an issue - although I can see one player in the wildcard list who looks like they may get onto the December PoM nominations list as well, at this stage, and a second I expect to be in that position.

Let's see.

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 Just a thought I had been having on having as many as groups as WCs  ..

With clearly some good contenders ( as you have said some possibly stronger than others already in the PoS line-up ) there might ultimately be one or two that are collectively seen as much stronger here than the rest of the WCs nominations. 

eg. if one is particularly seen as stronger, the others that land in their group are a bit stuffed, or if two are thought to stand out, they could land in the same group and that is tough on the one that comes second.

Just running past you what you have already probably considered and I am quite happy to stay with the random jeopardy as it is planned, since, -

a) this is an extra chance for all here anyway, having not previously made the PoS line-up through the other means.

b) there easily might not be an even number of WC places available to allow 2 groups with first 2 in each through, and an alternative of an initial R1 and WC final would no doubt muck-up your ovetall schedule a bit

So just as I say running it by you, but I'm quite happy to leave it as planned and let's see if we have a group of death.

Christine wrote:

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My view is that if any British players are still in competition on 27th December they deserve a nomination for Player of the Month, so that would solve the deadline issue!!!

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 That may well be true! Although we would want to see how they perform in those last rounds as it would inform whether we actually want to vote for them! Maybe anyone in action still on Xmas day and beyond just gets given December player of the month! 

1. Savannah Dada-Mascoll - An unexpected history making breakout year. Highest singles ranking in Appalachian State history at No 5. First App State player to qualifier for NCAAs, All-American and NCAA quarter-finalist. Carolina region co-champion. Full narrative in post 3

2. Ben Jones - has won the joint most titles of any player this season with 9 as of 08/12. All of those are doubles titles, 5 at M25 level and with 7 different partners. Plaudits for being our player with the equal most titles!

3. * Mimi Xu * - in her final year as a junior, reached the semi-finals of junior Wimbledon while mostly concentrating on making a successful transition to senior tennis. She won the best title of her senior career at the W100 in Wrexham and has raised her ranking from around WR500 at the start of the year to around WR250.

4. Hamish Stewart - Hamish also was prolific in winning titles this year, taking 8 in total as of end of November; 1 singles and 7 doubles at ITF level. He also managed to significantly improve his rankings, at the age of 26, almost halving both singles (to around 338) and doubles to 249) in a year where he made significant strides. Expecting more from him in 2025, but those 8 titles get him on the list.

5. Jake Fearnley - Starting the year at WR99, Jake maintained a top 100 ranking throughout the year, despite struggling in the second half of 2025 as he embarked on only his second year on the main tour. He reached a CH of 49 and was GB #2 for part of the year, having won his first main draw matches at ATP500 and ATP1000 level in 205, as well as rounds at the Australian, French and US Opens.

6. GB ITF men's singles players - at least began the year as ITF players, almost all then below WR 350 - as of 01/12 more ITF singles tities than any other nation ( 61 with Italy second on 58 ), with a particularly impressive record in M25s ( 36, with France second on 25 ). We started the year with 9 players in the top 350, with the then essentially ITF players (a number have advanced to challengers as the year has progressed), then making that 12 in the top 400 and 19 in the top 500. We are ending the year with 21 in the top 350, 25 in the top 400 (more than double), and 29 in the top 500 (for so long in the past 20 seemed an elusive target), with 16 of these 29 achieving CHs in 2025. All in all, remarkable.

7. Arthur Fery - after returning from a long spell of injury, Arthur began the year by winning the M25 title at Roehampton, unseeded and without losing a set. In August, he won his second title of the year and his first at challenger level at the Barranquilla CH75. In between, he won his first main draw match at Wimbledon and secured a win on his debut at the Davis Cup. He ends the year having qualified for an ATP250 for the first time and at a new CH inside the top 200.

8. Victoria Allen - having reached WR 671 as an 18 yo in 2019, then largely out of the collective consciousness for a number of years, particularly with being at college in the US, the now 24 yo has had a really good proper initial pro season. W35 Quebec City singles title plus 4 doubles titles, the highest being W50 Nottingham (with Millie Rajecki). Began the year unranked, as of 01/12 she has a singies ranking of 436 and a doubles ranking of 328, both close to her CHs. GB #14 in singles.

9. Oliver Crawford - after a largely uneventful first season since switching which saw him start his second year ranked down in the 400s he's given us more a sense of what he's capable of in his second year, breaking back into the top 200 for a CH 183 in September and reaching his first Challenger final since becoming a British player and the third of his career

10. Lui Maxted - one of the standout players this year; hes another player who took 8 titles, 3 in singles. But his ranking shot up from below 1000 to just in the top 500 in singles and similarly in doubles; in fact, apart from Toby Samuel, Lui is the highest rising singles player of all of our men and women, in terms of absolute rankings - well over 600 places. And the board took to him. he was nominated 3 times for player of the month, in the top ten or so of players to get multiple nominations.

11. Jan Choinski - from WR 173 at the start of the year has risen to a CH 125 and GB #4, claiming 4 Challenger singles titles including 2 at 125 level in a few weeks in September and October. Particularly looking at second half of the year, he seems still on the up.

12. Wake Forest University Brits (Luca Pow & Charlie Robertson) - Charlie and Luca made outstanding contributions in helping Wake Forest win the NCAA championship, the ACC regular season title, the ITA national indoor championships and a record 40 team wins. Charlie went on a 2 month unbeaten run and gained a reputation of being the most clutch player by regularly winning the team point that gave Wake Forest victory. Luca went on an incredible 21 match unbeaten run in the midst of 30 wins in the Spring and backed that up in the autumn by reaching the NCAA singles QF giving a calendar year college record of 42 wins 7 losses.

13. Brooke Black - Starting at around 1275, she managed to rise over 550 places to near 700, and did more in doubles with a 700 plus position rise. And she did this on a partial schedule, she only played 28 singles and 25 doubles matches. No spectacular titles or wins, just solid, consistent progress over the season.

14. George Loffhagen - started the year WR 579 with a CH 333, by October he hsd soared up to WR 200. Won his first challenger singles title, Segovia 75, plus 4 M25 singles titles. Can go missing for a time between tournaments, and it seems at times within matches, but has reaffirmed what a talent he has with the ability to go a fair bit higher.

15. Emily Appleton - who I believe is one of our most hard working players, competing virtually every week in both singles and doubles. This year she achieved new career highs of 347 in singles and 77 in doubles, ending the year at 376 and 87 respectively. In doubles she won a 75K level tournament and made the final of a WTA125

16. Billy Harris - one of our hardest working players, Billy has struggled to get past the first round for much of the year after an initial good spell in India in February - but in September he finally won a title at Challenger level, the CH75 in Cassis. Up until that point, he was the highest ranked player without a challenger title. Despite a generally difficult year, he ended the year with the much the same ranking as he started, at around WR125.

17. Cam Norrie - Cam began the year in poor form, slipping down to WR91 at the beginning of May, but he started to turn his year around after that. He reached the fourth round of the French Open and the quarter finals at Wimbledon before capping the year out by beating WR1 Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Masters and reaching the final of the Metz ATP250. All this has lifted him to a year end ranking of WR27.

18. Luke Johnson - Luke won 3 doubles titles in 2025, all partnered by Sander Arends: the ATP500 in Barcelona, the ATP250 in Hong Kong and the Monza CH100. Luke and Sander also reached the Quarter Finals of the French Open, beating Cash/Glasspool in the previous round. He achieved a career high of WR28 in July and, despite missing several weeks over the summer due to injury, ends the year ar WR38, a rise of 20 places from the end of 2024.

19. Jack Pinnington Jones - still just 22 yo, won his first Challenger titles, Nottingham 50 and Winston Salem 75 plus RU in the Ilkey 125. Also a straight sets R1 win at Wimbledon over Tomas Etcheveery, then WR 53. Big rankings jump forward from starting the year at WR / CH 376 to then reach a CH 177 and at 01/12 be WR 205 and GB #10. He's not anywhere near the Billy level for tournament activity and still seems a bit inconsistent but when he has been on, he has often been very on, a big performer, and with 287 points from 10 positive counters he ranks GB #5 for points per counter.

20. Alice Gillan - the 27 yo ended last year at WR 616 with a CH 614. She steadily rose 150 places to a CH 466 in July, being WR 491 at 08/12. Won 2 W15 singies singles titles, in Spain and Malta, though her best week was probably being RU in the Nottingham W35 in May where she beat former WR 26 Tamira Paszek (then WR 389) before ultimately losing in a 3 set final to the top seed Marni Banks WR 321.

21. Harry Wendelken - 2025 has proven a breakthrough year for Harry, someone a lot of people thought could go far. In October 2025, he won his first challenger title, the CH50 title in Crete (Challenger 6) where he came through as a lucky loser, beating players like Dennis Novak and Zapata Miralles. From a start point of 673 he rose to 315 in the rankings, halving his ranking over the year. One of several British challenger title winners and he deserves the plaudits like the others!

22. * Hollie Smart * - Aged 16, moved from JR 250 to 76 and making small waves in senior tennis too where in the Nottingham W35 in May she reached the singles MD QF from qualifying, beating 2 top 600 players including Ranah. Won both the U16 and U18 LTA Nationals doubles titles in April, won a J300 doubles title in Spain in September, and in December reached the Bradenton J300 singles QF, beating 2 strong seeds on the way.

23. Joe Salisbury/Neal Skupski - on one level, this has been a stunning year for the lads. Joe rose from 33 to 10 and Neal from 18 to 9 in the world. In making that happen, they reached two finals of Grand Slam events, the French and US Opens. They capped that off with an unbeaten run at the ATP Tour Finals before a final loss there. Joe even managed to reach the Wimbledon mixed doubles final. Of the 5 biggest mens doubles events in the world, they were in 3. If theyd won just one of those, we wouldnt be bothering with wildcards, theyd quite possibly be players of the season, period. 

24. Johannus Monday - in his first full year on tour moved up from WR 371 to WR 236 at 08/12 ( with a CH 212 in October ). Won 2 M25 singles titles early in the year and, after a tough looking / learning few months, in October reached a Challenger 100 final in between 2 Challenger 75 SFs.

25. Blu Baker - Blu missed all of 2024 dealing with elbow surgery, a ruptured eardrum and mononucleosis. He had previously reached 608 in the rankings. In 2025, he came back and put it all behind him. Two M15 singles titles and an M25 doubles title later, hed won 69% of his singles matches this season and fought back to 673. An amazing effort and surely he will be well into the top 500 if he keeps fit into 2026. 

26. Liam Broady - WR 788 in the first rankings of 2025 after injury and a worrying concussion incident, Liam.spent much of the year putting in the hard yards, trying to refind himself, on the ITF circuit, winning 4 M15/M15+H titles along the way but still tough work, and he was still WR 605 as late as June. In November though it was a joy to again see so much more the real Liam when from qualifying he reached the Lyon Challenger 75 final ( his first challenger final in over 2 years ), beating WRs 103 and 128 along the way before losing to Struff WR 100. Was up to WR 305 on 08/12. Welcome back, Liam, here's to much more in 2026.

27: Joshua Paris - A new Ch, place in the top 100, 2 wins and 5 runners up makes a successful season for one of our upcoming doubles players.

*-* denotes players in December PoM vote as well and therefore may end up not needing a wildcard

 Just 5 days left for nominations to come in - great list so far. Dont be shy if youve got someone in mind and youre thinking about it. Better on than off, to coin a phrase- if they arent on the list, they cant get a vote!