Finn Reynolds and James Watt came into Granby on the back of winning the Challenger tournament in Newport, which was a vast improvement on their first-round defeat last year and boded well for a possible successful defence of their title in Canada. Their opponents in the final were American Matt Kuhar and tall Frenchman Guillaume Dalmasso, a player who was ranked in the 800s coming into this event and who I had never seen before.
The match didn’t get off to a promising start, with drizzle starting as the players warmed up. Umpire Jesse Greene called them off the court after a couple of minutes, and they didn’t actually get underway for another five hours. Watt held safely before hitting a fabulous inside-out forehand return into the tramlines off Dalmasso, and Reynolds’ forehand return down the singles sideline was just as good. A double fault took them to deuce, and Dalmasso hit a backhand volley into the net to lose the deciding point.
Kuhar hit a beautiful cross-court backhand winner to end Reynolds’ first point, but the top seeds were untroubled in the rest of the game, with Watt then hitting a fabulous cross-court backhand return into the tramlines when Kuhar served. The latter hit a forehand into the net to lose the first game point, but his partner converted the second by winning the first of several wonderful rallies with an overhead volley down the middle of the court.
Watt held to love before Reynolds won Dalmasso’s first point with a terrific forehand lob down the right-hand side of the court. Watt added another terrific return of serve, this one a forehand down the singles sideline, and Kuhar hit a backhand volley into the net to end a good short rally and drop his partner back to 0-40. Unreturnable serves to Watt, either side of Reynolds being forced to hit an overhead forehand into the net, got Dalmasso back to deuce, and he won the good short rally on the deciding point with a backhand volley.
Kuhar hit a gorgeous forehand return off Reynolds that appeared to go straight through Watt, squeezing between his arm and his body, and a forehand volley into the net from the latter gave away a break point. Reynolds saved that with the first of only two aces in the match, beating Kuhar out wide, and the latter’s inside-out forehand return of the deciding point flew back over the baseline.
Kuhar was now serving to keep his team in the set, and looked to be cruising at 40-15, but Watt took the next point with a beautiful soft backhand volley at the net before hitting a sizzling backhand return down the sideline that was perhaps the shot of the match. It took them to deuce, and a first set point, but Reynolds’ forehand return of the decider went into the net.
He made up for that by winning the first three points of Watt’s game with lovely volleys, the best being the angled forehand to take the last of those, and they wrapped up a hold to love by forcing Kuhar to hit a forehand into the net. The set had taken 30 minutes.
Dalmasso held to love to start the second stanza, while Watt, who did hold safely, lost a fantastic rally on his second point when he hit a forehand into the net. Kuhar held safely as well before Reynolds’ game contained the best two rallies in the match. The first was merely fantastic, ending after eleven shots when Watt was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, but the second was incredible, and that finished on the tenth shot when Kuhar let the incoming ball bounce before smashing away the winner.
Those were the only points that the New Zealanders lost, however, and the only blip in the next two games was a double fault from Watt. The sequence of holds came to an end in the next game, Reynolds steering a beautiful forehand volley into the right-hand side of the court before creating a break point with a lovely forehand return down the tramlines. Kuhar was forced into a backhand error, his cross-court shot staying on his side of the net and going wide into the bargain, and Reynolds held comfortably to consolidate the advantage.
Dalmasso’s game contained the other ace in the match, out wide to Reynolds, but the hold only delayed what had looked inevitable for the past few minutes. Kuhar was the victim of an unreturnable serve on the second point, but winning volleys from Reynolds on the other three points wrapped up a hold to love, and completed a successful defence of the New Zealanders’ title from 2025. The final score was 6-3, 6-4, and the contest had lasted for an hour and two minutes.
It was the ninth Challenger title for Reynolds and the seventh for Watt, all of which have come in partnership with the left-hander after the latter’s first two victories with Matias Soto in Colombia in 2024. Their rankings have stayed the same, but they have a chance to improve significantly over the next two tournaments, having lost in the first round in the corresponding weeks last year.