Liverpool Cricket Club concluded hosting the 23rd edition of the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament at the weekend

Liverpool Cricket Club concluded hosting the 23rd edition of the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament (LITT) on Saturday – with all finals featuring British players.

Patrick Brady of Great Britain took home the men’s singles trophy, beating Norway’s number-two-ranked Victor Durasovic 10-8 in a first-to-ten superset. The victory means that the 20-year-old from Dartford successfully defended his title, as he won the competition n 2024.

Northern Vision set up the event, and management director Anders Borg said it had its best year so far, as the weather played a major part.

“The centre court played fantastically, some of the players said that it was just as good as any outside court at Wimbledon, which obviously is a massive compliment,” said Borg.

“We had the weather on our side; they said on the weather forecast the heatwave was coming, and indeed it did, so Thursday and Friday were just amazing. On Saturday, it rained a little at noon, but we managed to get the play started at 2.30pm, so it all went very well.”

Due to the rain on Saturday, the match for the third-place playoff between Martin Klizan of Slovakia and Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria was called off as the ground was unplayable.

“The important bit for us was on Saturday to get the two finals out of the way, and the third place was sort of just an exhibition,” explained Borg.

“We complemented that with the mixed doubles match after the [singles] finals, we didn’t finish until 7pm, so we wouldn’t have had time for another match.”

This year, the LITT added small venue extras, such as an afternoon tea area, and seating courtside for people who wanted to get closer to the action.

“We introduced a VIP afternoon tea ticket for the general public which went down really well, and they were all sat courtside, which is incredible [sitting] next to the players, as opposed to sitting higher up in the stands, so that was a very popular feature and created a village-garden, summer-party environment at the cricket club,” Borg commented.

Along with bringing good tennis to the cricket club, the LITT has helped set up Liverpool as an epicentre for kids and young people trying to break into the tennis world.

“We have annual tennis programmes running throughout the year, which include four International Tennis Federation under-18 events and two Tennis Europe under-14 events, which take place in November and February each year, at the Liverpool Tennis Centre at Bidston Tennis Centre,” added Borg.

“This is part of what we have started up, which has made Liverpool now the busiest hub for international junior tennis in Britain. If anyone had said that would happen 10 years ago, people would have thought we were rather crazy, since most of the tournaments happen down south and in the Midlands.

“The North West has certainly never had as many tournaments as they have now, courtesy of the tennis program that the company Northern Vision has set up.”

Widnes tennis player Abi Redman played in the Women’s singles finals. However, she fell short against her opponent, Patricia Tig of Romania. The 30-year-old beat Redman in a superset 10-5 to clinch the 2025 Women’s title.

However, it was not a bitter end to Redman’s run in the tournament. The 17-year-old won the mixed doubles final with Conor Brady, brother of the Men’s singles winner, beating Tig, alongside Martin Klizan.

The organiser, Northern Vision, hands out International Tennis Wildcards, which can help local players move up the rankings without having to spend extensively on travel to events.

“To get international ranking points, you have to travel the world and compete wherever you can afford to, and it’s a rather expensive thing,” explained Borg.

“The goal for most of the players is to obtain scholarships and to play college tennis, so we gave a wildcard to Abi Redman, who was one of the competitors at the event this year.

“We gave it to her in November when she had no international ranking points, and she took good care of it, as incredibly she won the tournament. That has enabled her to receive numerous offers from Colleges in America, and she has accepted one from St. John’s in New York.

“It is an incredible story as that wouldn’t have happened unless she won the event, and she wouldn’t have won it if she didn’t have a wildcard, so it’s with these kinds of things which we are trying to encourage the local kids to reach out.”

Along with this, Northern Vision also sets up ‘mini tennis’ courts across Liverpool town centre in the build up to the LITT, with the courts this year on Castle Street and Exchange Flags behind the Town Hall. These small promo events also have coaches present.

“So the idea is to promote the tournament during these sessions, but also get people involved in tennis,” Borg commented.

On Wednesday, June 18, one day before the LITT began, around 500 children from schools in Wavertree were invited to the cricket ground to learn about tennis, where staff from the accounting firm and organising partner KPMG help teach the kids while they also learn tennis exercises.

Borg said that he is incredibly happy with what impact the tournament is bringing to the area.