Chorley’s Fabrice Higgins wins Australian Open doubles title

Melbourne: The AO25 Intellectual Disability Championships happened at Melbourne Park from January 24 to 26. Four British players reached the finals, and two won titles.

This year was the third annual Intellectual Disability Championships and Deaf Championships. It was organized with Virtus, the international sports federation for athletes with intellectual impairments.

Held alongside the Australian Open, the tournament highlighted the skills of athletes with intellectual impairments. Mr. Higgins was among the British players competing after the first major tennis event of the year.

In men’s singles, all three British players, including Mr. Higgins, were on the same side of the draw. This meant only one could reach the final.

Mr. Higgins beat fellow Brits Oliver Beadle and Aidan Moody in straight sets during the quarter-finals and semi-finals. This set up a final against his Australian doubles partner, top seed Archie Graham.

The final was close, with Mr. Higgins narrowly losing the first set. He couldn’t recover, ending the match 6-4, 6-0.

Despite this, the number one ranked II-1 doubles player had more to fight for. Mr. Higgins and Mr. Graham won the men’s doubles title without dropping a set, defeating Beadle and Moody 6-1, 6-3 in just 57 minutes.

They previously triumphed over the Australian-French duo of Damian Philips and Benjamin Coulier with a straight sets win (6-2, 6-3) and secured a walkover win against Joshua Holloway and Mitchell James.

This victory brought silverware back to Lancashire from Down Under. Beadle and Moody finished second in the men’s doubles after a walkover against Holloway and James and a 7-6(6), 6-1 win over Philips and Coulier.

On the women’s side, Britain’s Anna McBride solidified her top ranking after winning her third consecutive singles title at the Australian Open.