Five British doubles reach tour-level semi-finals

Five British players reached WTA and ATP Tour semi-finals in an impressive week for the doubles stars.

In Dubai, British No.1 Olivia Nicholls and Australian Olivia Gadecki put in strong performances to beat Xinyu Jiang and Fang-Hsien Wu, followed by Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi – both in deciding match tie-breaks.

In the semi-finals of the Abu Dhabi Open, Nicholls and Gadecki were eventually defeated by fourth seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-4 to bring an end to their title hopes.

The 30-year-old British star is now up to world No.40 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash continued their impressive start to 2025 with a semi-final run at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam.

The Brits – who have already won a title in Brisbane and made the Australian Open quartyer-finals together – knocked out second seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the quarters 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final four.

However, it wasn’t to be for the unseeded duo, eventually losing out to Australian Open runners-up and eventual champions Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(1), 7-6(3).

Emily Appleton enjoyed her best result of the season so far in Cluj – teaming up with Qianhui Tang to make the semi-finals of the WTA 250 event.

Fourth seeds Appleton and Tang knocked out home favourites Simona Halep and Anna Bogdan in the opening round followed by a gutsy 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-8 victory against Maja Chwalinska and Anastasia Detiuc.

Their run came to an end against Belgium’s Magali Kempen and Czech Republic’s Anna Siskova 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 in the semis.

Meanwhile in Dallas, Jamie Murray returned to winning ways at the ATX Open with John Peers – making their first semi-final of the season.

Murray and Peers saved four match points to beat fellow Brit Luke Johnson and his partner Sander Arends in the quarter-finals 4-6, 7-6(9), 10-6, but were eventually defeated by American duo Christian Harrison and Evan King 6-4, 6-2.

Murray jumps two places in the rankings to world No.23.