2024 Real Tennis World Doubles Championship


The 2024 Real Tennis World Doubles Championship was the 12th edition of the real tennis World Doubles Championship and was held at the Racquet Club of Chicago from April 24-28th 2024. The event was won by defending champions Tim Chisholm and Camden Riviere representing the United States. It was their fifth consecutive title, with Chisholm equalling Robert Fahey and Steve Virgona with 6 overall titles.

Qualification

Qualification to the event was based on the World Doubles Rankings published by the IRTPA, with the defending champions automatically allocated as first seeds. Only the top four pairs were eligible, with eligibility determined by the sum of the ranking points of the players in the pair. At the conclusion of the final qualifying event, the 2024 US Open, the standings were as follows:
RankPlayerClubPointsQualified
1yes|Yes

World Championships

Venue

The event was hosted at the Racquet Club of Chicago and organised by the United States Court Tennis Association. The host country was determined by international rotation, in the order United Kingdom-Australia-France-United States. It would be the first world championship, male or female, singles or doubles, hosted in Chicago following the reopenining of the court tennis court in 2012. Chicago sacrificed hosting rights for the 2024 US Open - which is normally determined by rotation of clubs in the United States - in order to host the event. The Racquet Club of Chicago is the home club of Steve Virgona.

Summary

The first day saw the first four sets of each of the semi finals. Play begain with Virogna and Lumley against Fahey and Howell, with three very tight sets with play lasting 3 hours and 40 minutes. The second seeds finally got a break in the fourth set to secure a 3–1 lead. Riviere and Chisholm blitzed the first two sets, before Sayers and Taylor-Matthews rallied to take the third set 6/4. The Americans then closed out the day to take a 3–1 lead into the second day.
Lumley and Virgona were too good for Fahey and Howell on the second day, winning both sets comfortably. The tension was in the second match, where Chisholm and Riviere were within one game of winning the match in the sixth set. Sayers and Taylor-Matthews clawed back a 3-game deficit to reach 5-all with the serve, but the defending champions laid two short chases to win the set and the match.
After the rest day, the day 3 saw the first four sets of the final. Lumley and Virgona dominated Chisholm and Riviere in the first set, and built a big lead in the second. Chisholm and Riviere clawed back the set to win 6/5 against the momentum of the match. Lumley and Virgona continued well into the third set, with Chisholm and Riviere finally gaining the momentum in the fourth set, the day finishing with the match level at two sets all. Chisholm reflected that their performance was poor and hoped to improve the following day. On the final day, Riviere and Chisholm returned to the dominant form they had displayed over the previous decade, maintaining momentum throughout the day and winning the required three sets to close out the match.