Benjamin Richard Edwin Cawston, known as Ben Cawston, is a Racquets (Rackets) player currently ranked no.1 in the World (March 2022) along with being champion of the world (April 2023). [1]
Cawston is a two time US Open Singles Champion (2022, 2020). Cawston is the current Invitational Singles Champion (World's Top 8 players event) an event he also won in 2019. Ben is the current holder of the Western Open Singles (Chicago) and the Manchester Gold Racket Singles and Doubles. [2] Ben is the youngest player in history to be ranked at no.1 in the world and also have a challenge for the world championship (November 2022). [3]
Cawston previously was the youngest player in history to win the British Amateur Singles Championship in 2017 (Aged 18) and played at the Queens Club, a tournament dating back to 1888. [4] [5]
Due to Cawston having been educated at Westgate Comprehensive School in winchester, became the first state-educated pupil to win a national public school title, following this win he was denied entry to the doubles tournament after profesionals from the 14 top private schools, voted narrowly to exclude state school players.
David Makey, a professional at Tonbridge School who chairs the Rackets Proffesional Association (RPA), said the reason was that state schoolboys did not play in inter-school doubles matches on which the national seedings are based. However, some insiders believe the real reason for the ban was that certain professionals feared that their own 'star players' might loose to Cawston and his double partner, Thomas Foster.
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.
Squash, sometimes called squash rackets, is a racket-and-ball sport played by two (singles) or four players (doubles) in a four-walled court with a small, hollow, rubber ball. The players alternate in striking the ball with their rackets onto the playable surfaces of the four walls of the court. The objective of the game is to hit the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. There are about 20 million people who play squash regularly world-wide in over 185 countries. The governing body of squash, the World Squash Federation (WSF), is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the sport will be included in the Olympic Games, starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The Professional Squash Association (PSA) organizes the pro tour.
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France. Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.
John Albert Kramer was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, and a pioneer promoter who helped drive the sport towards professionalism at the elite level. Kramer also ushered in the serve-and-volley era in tennis, a playing style with which he won three Grand Slam tournaments. He also led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals.
Rackets or racquets is an indoor racket sport played in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada. It is infrequently called "hard rackets" to distinguish it from the related sport of squash.
The Real Tennis World Championship is the main competition in real tennis.
This page is a glossary of tennis terminology.
Frank Andrew Parker was an amateur & later professional American male tennis player of Polish immigrant parents who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. He won four Grand Slam singles titles as well as three doubles titles.
Margaret Varner Bloss is a retired American athlete and professor of physical education from El Paso, Texas who excelled in three distinctly different racket sports: badminton, squash, and tennis.
Ben Taylor-Matthews is a professional British Real Tennis player based at Bristol Real Tennis Club. His career high ranking is world number 4, and his current ranking is 5. To date, he is yet to win a major singles title but has contested two Australian Open finals, as well as an IRTPA Championships final, plus a Champions Trophy final. He unsuccessfully challenged for the World Championship on three occasions, most recently in 2023.
Noah Rubin is an American professional tennis player. He is a former Wimbledon junior singles champion, and a former USTA junior national champion in both singles and doubles. After turning pro in 2015, he won four ATP Challenger titles.
James Stout, born 16 August 1984, is a world-ranked professional squash, rackets and real tennis player from Bermuda.
Edward Richard Bebbington Hyde is an English wicketkeeper batsman. He was born in Huntingdon and attended St John's College School in Cambridge and Tonbridge School. He was then awarded a Skinners' Company exhibition to Jesus College, Cambridge.
Stacy Margolin is a former American professional tennis player in the WTA tour and the ITF world tour from 1979 to 1987 whose career-high world singles ranking is No. 18. In her eight professional seasons, Margolin competed in a total of twenty-five grand slam championships, which includes several appearances at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open. She won a gold medal at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Claire Faheynée Vigrass is a British real tennis and rackets player and current real tennis Ladies World Champion. She holds over 40 Open singles titles and has completed a Grand Slam on five occasions. She is the first female player to play in the main draw of three of the four Men's Opens, and the first to female player to reach a semi final stage. She has also challenged for the Rackets World Championships on two occasions and has won five British Open Rackets titles.
John Colin Lumley is a British professional real tennis player currently ranked at number 2 in the world. He unsuccessfully challenged Camden Riviere for the 2023 Real Tennis World Championship at Westwood Country Club in Vienna, Virginia. He currently works as the assistant professional at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia.
Nick Howell is a professional real tennis player based at the Aiken Tennis Club in Aiken, South Carolina. Howell currently ranked number 3 in the world in both singles and doubles and won the French Open in 2023. Howell has challenged for the Real Tennis World Championship on two occasions, playing in the First Round Eliminator in 2020 and the Final Eliminator in 2023.
Lea Van Der Zwalmen is a French rackets and real tennis player and the current rackets World Champion. She is undefeated in rackets since the inaugural Ladies World Championship in 2015. In real tennis, she represents the Jeu de Paume de Bordeaux in Mérignac, Bordeaux and is women's world number 2. She has contested two World Championship singles finals and has won one Open doubles title. She has previously represented France in junior squash and also plays padel tennis.
Bryn Sayers is a British professional real tennis player currently ranked at number seven in the world. He unsuccessfully challenged for the Real Tennis World Championship on four occasions, reaching the Final Eliminator in 2014 against Camden Riviere. He holds two singles Open titles, having won both in 2012. He works as the senior professional at the Queen's Club in London.
Robert Shenkman is an amateur British real tennis player currently based at the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club. He is the current British Amateur Champion, US Amateur Champion, and MCC Gold Racquet holder, the first amateur to unite the three titles since Julian Snow in 2003. Shenkman is ranked in the top 10 Open singles rankings and has reached the semi final of the US Open doubles championships.