The first game of the doubles final at Queen’s Club, when Michael Venus and Nikola Mektić played fourth seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, turned out to be a perfect foretaste of how hard it would be in pretty well every service game from the British pair, with Glasspool going on to win all four of his first serves after being forced into an error after his second serve on the second point. Venus then had to save a break point after hitting a forehand over the baseline, which he did by forcing Glasspool into a return error, and he did the same on the deciding point.
Mektić lost the first proper rally when he hit a backhand into the net on Cash’s first point, with two aces following before Mektić was forced into a return error. It was a pattern that would be repeated over and over throughout the match. Mektić then held comfortably before Glasspool held to love, Cash winning the first point with a beautiful backhand volley. He added a lovely cross-court backhand return off Venus in the next game, but the New Zealander won three of the other four points by forcing return errors.
Cash held easily again, but Mektić’s second game became the most crucial in the set. The fantastic 11 shot rally on the third point was the best in the match but, instead of going to a 40-0 lead, Mektić hit an overhead volley into the ground on his side of the net. Glasspool levelled the score with a fabulous backhand lob onto the baseline, and Venus gave away a break point when he hit an overhead volley too far. Mektić missed his first serve, and Glasspool hammered a beautiful cross-court backhand return of the second into the tramlines to snatch the break.
He aced Venus out wide twice, although the New Zealander won the great short rally on the point between when hit a forehand volley that deflected off Glasspool’s racquet. An ace down the middle to Mektić gave the British pair three set points, and they converted the first when Mektić was forced to hit a backhand into the net. The set had taken 27 minutes.
Venus held to love to start the second set, and Glasspool did the same with the help of three great winning volleys from Cash. Another beautiful backhand return from Glasspool, this time down the tramlines, created more break points against Mektić, who then hit a forehand volley into the net to concede the game. Venus hit a beautiful inside-out backhand return to start Cash’s next game, with the latter then double faulting to give away the British pair’s first break point. Mektić jumped on the chance, pulling a beautiful forehand return into the tramlines to get the break straight back.
Although Venus held again next up, it was Glasspool who provided the highlights when he won the second point with a fabulous backhand lob to just inside the baseline and the fourth with a stunning backhand return down the tramlines. Venus repaid part of that with his own fabulous inside-out backhand return into the tramlines in the next game, but Glasspool held anyway before Mektić got taken to deuce when Venus was forced to hit a backhand wide at the end of a great short rally. He made up for that by winning the deciding point when he tapped away a very simple winning volley.
Cash finished another hold to love with two more aces, while Venus forced three return errors in the next game, as well as acing Glasspool out wide. Glasspool aced him in return before forcing three backhand return errors, and Mektić held slightly more easily than In his previous game. That left Cash serving to stay in the set which, based on the earlier games, seemed pretty much of a given. He did lose one point, to a cross-court smash from Venus, but forced the New Zealander into a backhand return error to take them to a tie-break.
The first five points went with serve, but Cash lost his first point when forced to hit a forehand over the baseline. That meant his team were a mini-break behind as they changed ends, and one became two when Venus hit the shot of the match, a wonderful inside-out backhand return that just caught the sideline. He lost momentum by double faulting to lose his first point, but forced Cash into another return error to give his team three set points. Glasspool won his two points, but was forced to hit a forehand into the net when Mektić served the final point. The set had lasted for 46 minutes.
Venus had a chance to get a mini-break straight away when they started the decider, but hit a forehand into the net to let Glasspool hold his serve. Two winning volleys from Mektić were followed by two more aces from Cash, and Venus lost a critical point on Mektić’s serve when he hit an angled backhand volley wide. That took them to the change of ends, with the next group of six points all going to the servers. Mektić and Glasspool each hit beautiful winning cross-court backhand volleys in that sequence, with Cash adding another ace after they changed ends again.
A backhand volley from Venus won Mektić’s first point, but Cash grabbed the most important mini-break of all when he hit a winning forehand volley to just inside the baseline. That gave the fourth seeds three Championship points, and Glasspool forced Mektić into yet another return error to end the match after an hour and 26 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-6. The result was testament to the quality of serving from the British pair, who lost just one first serve point each as they secured 46 points from 48 serves in play.