British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Nominations list:

1. Dahnon Ward - WR 33 and unseeded, won the Austrian Open title, beating the 1, 2, 3 and 8 seeds (WR 15, 18, 19, 27) en route for a stunning title, including beating Ben Bartram in the final following 12 straight losses to him. Stunning title to win, surely the best effort of his career, certainly the biggest level tournament win of his career

2. Alexander Okonkwo - the 21 yo returned to the ATP singles rankings with a CH after reaching the QF in the East Lansing, USA M25 for the 2nd and 3rd ITF MD wins of his career. And in the same week reached the doubles final with older brother Oliver, beating the top seeds in the SF and only losing to the 2nd seeds in the final after a 9-11 MTB.

3. Amelia Rajecki - winning her first ITF title since 2022 and the biggest of her career, Millie won the W35 title in Roehampton, taking her to a career high ranking of 367

 4. Mark Ceban - having won his first ITF MD match at the end of July to enter the ATP rankings, the 17 yo then reached two Roehampton QFs in August - firstly an M25 where he beat George Loffhagen WR 477 and then a Challenger 50 where he beat Anton Shepp (NZL) WR 498. Took him to 12 ranking points and into the top 1200.

5. Oliver Tarvet - after winning the Aldershot M25 title at the start of August ( July PoM month ), he continued in August by being Roehampton M25 RU and then Roehampton Challenger 50 title winner, his first challenger title. Even with some points dropping off, he rose over 100 places from WR 436 at 03/08 to WR 329 at 24/08.

6. Lara Savic - sometimes, PoM is about just shouting out the unexpected. At the British Tour Sutton Premier event, this was certainly unexpected as Lara took the title. In the words of Telstar " Remarkable tournament for the unseeded/unranked Lara Savic. She had wins against three world ranked players-Leticia Romanova, Edie Griffiths (who beat top seed Eliz Maloney) and three times event winner-Freya Christie!2 - aged 17 and not known to most on here, let's hope we see her appear more often!

7. Toby Samuel - qualified for the US Open MD ( to follow French Open qualification and Wimbledon MD WC ) to have him looking closer than ever to the top 100. Beat Billy Harris in 3 sets in QR2 before a 3 set FQR win over (q22) Cristian Garin (CH 17). Getting stronger as he went on, Toby motored to a 5-0 lead in the 3rd set with Garin retiring / surrendering with a likely long break as storms set in.

I read somewhere that Toby was one of a very few Brits to have made it through qualifying at Roland Garros. Given how different the surfaces are I asked ChatGPT if any British player has made it through qualies at both the French and US Open in the same season - and it said it was a first. If true then thats a nice bit of history made

Nominations list:

1. Dahnon Ward - WR 33 and unseeded, won the Austrian Open title, beating the 1, 2, 3 and 8 seeds (WR 15, 18, 19, 27) en route for a stunning title, including beating Ben Bartram in the final following 12 straight losses to him. Stunning title to win, surely the best effort of his career, certainly the biggest level tournament win of his career

2. Alexander Okonkwo - the 21 yo returned to the ATP singles rankings with a CH after reaching the QF in the East Lansing, USA M25 for the 2nd and 3rd ITF MD wins of his career. And in the same week reached the doubles final with older brother Oliver, beating the top seeds in the SF and only losing to the 2nd seeds in the final after a 9-11 MTB.

3. Amelia Rajecki - winning her first ITF title since 2022 and the biggest of her career, Millie won the W35 title in Roehampton, taking her to a career high ranking of 367

 4. Mark Ceban - having won his first ITF MD match at the end of July to enter the ATP rankings, the 17 yo then reached two Roehampton QFs in August - firstly an M25 where he beat George Loffhagen WR 477 and then a Challenger 50 where he beat Anton Shepp (NZL) WR 498. Took him to 12 ranking points and into the top 1200.

5. Oliver Tarvet - after winning the Aldershot M25 title at the start of August ( July PoM month ), he continued in August by being Roehampton M25 RU and then Roehampton Challenger 50 title winner, his first challenger title, finishing off with a SF in the Roehampton 50 follow-up event the next week (leaving him W1 L2 vs Charils Broom in a Roehampton mini series ). Even with some points dropping off, he rose well over 100 places from WR 436 at 03/08 to a CH liive ranked 308 for 31/08

6. Lara Savic - sometimes, PoM is about just shouting out the unexpected. At the British Tour Sutton Premier event, this was certainly unexpected as Lara took the title. In the words of Telstar " Remarkable tournament for the unseeded/unranked Lara Savic. She had wins against three world ranked players-Leticia Romanova, Edie Griffiths (who beat top seed Eliz Maloney) and three times event winner-Freya Christie!2 - aged 17 and not known to most on here, let's hope we see her appear more often!

7. Toby Samuel - qualified for the US Open MD ( to follow French Open qualification and Wimbledon MD WC - apparently the first time any Brit has made it through qualies of both the FO and USO in the same season! ) to have him looking closer than ever to the top 100. Beat Billy Harris in 3 sets in QR2 before a 3 set FQR win over (q22) Cristian Garin (CH 17). Getting stronger as he went on, Toby motored to a 5-0 lead in the 3rd set with Garin retiring / surrendering with a likely long break as storms set in.