British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

So, going live with these votes - but don't worry, no one will miss out as I am leaving them longer. This first round will last 30 hours and so it will close at 3 pm Wednesday 31st Dec. The final will then be posted at that time, and also run for 30 hours through to around 9 pm Thursday 1st Jan.

15 players in each group in this round - top 6 plus any ties will go through to a 12 player plus final.  

From that final, 5 will qualify for the Player of the Season vote that starts at the weekend 

The groups are drawn randomly but it was linked to the way in which they were nominated - the eagle eyed will see how it panned out - but we have equal numbers of women and men, in essence, in each group. 

You may see your favourites clashing - that is inevitable in such a big field but with 6 plus going through, there is a good chance everyone will see their favourites survive to the wildcard final

2. Ben Jones - has won the joint most titles of any player this season with 9 as of 08/12. All of those are doubles titles, 5 at M25 level and with 7 different partners. Plaudits for being our player with the equal most titles!

3. Mimi Xu - in her final year as a junior, reached the semi-finals of junior Wimbledon while mostly concentrating on making a successful transition to senior tennis. She won the best title of her senior career at the W100 in Wrexham and has raised her ranking from around WR500 at the start of the year to around WR250.

6. GB ITF men's singles players - at least began the year as ITF players, almost all then below WR 350 - as of 22/12 more ITF singles tities than any other nation ( 61 with Italy second on 59 ), with a particularly impressive record in M25s ( 36, with France second on 25 ). We started the year with 9 players in the top 350, with the then essentially ITF players (a number have advanced to challengers as the year has progressed), then making that 12 in the top 400 and 19 in the top 500. We are ending the year with 21 in the top 350, 25 in the top 400 (more than double), and 29 in the top 500 (for so long in the past 20 seemed an elusive target), with 16 of these 29 achieving CHs in 2025. All in all, remarkable.

7. Arthur Fery - after returning from a long spell of injury, Arthur began the year by winning the M25 title at Roehampton, unseeded and without losing a set. In August, he won his second title of the year and his first at challenger level at the Barranquilla CH75. In between, he won his first main draw match at Wimbledon and secured a win on his debut at the Davis Cup. He ends the year having qualified for an ATP250 for the first time and at a new CH inside the top 200.

10. Lui Maxted - one of the standout players this year; hes another player who took 8 titles, 3 in singles. But his ranking shot up from below 1000 to just in the top 500 in singles and similarly in doubles; in fact, apart from Toby Samuel, Lui is the highest rising singles player of all of our men and women, in terms of absolute rankings - well over 600 places. And the board took to him. he was nominated 3 times for player of the month, in the top ten or so of players to get multiple nominations.

11. Jan Choinski - from WR 173 at the start of the year has risen to a CH 125 and GB #4, claiming 4 Challenger singles titles including 2 at 125 level in a few weeks in September and October. Particularly looking at second half of the year, he seems still on the up.

14. George Loffhagen - started the year WR 579 with a CH 333, by October he hsd soared up to WR 200. Won his first challenger singles title, Segovia 75, plus 4 M25 singles titles. Can go missing for a time between tournaments, and it seems at times within matches, but has reaffirmed what a talent he has with the ability to go a fair bit higher.

15. Emily Appleton - who I believe is one of our most hard working players, competing virtually every week in both singles and doubles. This year she achieved new career highs of 347 in singles and 77 in doubles, ending the year at 376 and 87 respectively. In doubles she won a 75K level tournament and made the final of a WTA125

18. Luke Johnson - Luke won 3 doubles titles in 2025, all partnered by Sander Arends: the ATP500 in Barcelona, the ATP250 in Hong Kong and the Monza CH100. Luke and Sander also reached the Quarter Finals of the French Open, beating Cash/Glasspool in the previous round. He achieved a career high of WR28 in July and, despite missing several weeks over the summer due to injury, ends the year ar WR38, a rise of 20 places from the end of 2024.

19. Jack Pinnington Jones - still just 22 yo, won his first Challenger titles, Nottingham 50 and Winston Salem 75 plus RU in the Ilkey 125. Also a straight sets R1 win at Wimbledon over Tomas Etcheveery, then WR 53. Big rankings jump forward from starting the year at WR / CH 376 to then reach a CH 177 and at 29/12 be WR 203 and GB #10. He's not anywhere near the Billy level for tournament activity and still seems a bit inconsistent but when he has been on, he has often been very on, a big performer, and with 287 points from 10 positive counters he ranks GB #5 for points per counter.

22. Hollie Smart - Aged 16, moved from JR 250 to 76 and making small waves in senior tennis too where in the Nottingham W35 in May she reached the singles MD QF from qualifying, beating 2 top 600 players including Ranah. Won both the U16 and U18 LTA Nationals doubles titles in April, won a J300 doubles title in Spain in September, and in December reached the Bradenton J300 singles QF, beating 2 strong seeds on the way.

23. Joe Salisbury/Neal Skupski - on one level, this has been a stunning year for the lads. Joe rose from 33 to 10 and Neal from 18 to 9 in the world. In making that happen, they reached two finals of Grand Slam events, the French and US Opens. They capped that off with an unbeaten run at the ATP Tour Finals before a final loss there. Joe even managed to reach the Wimbledon mixed doubles final. Of the 5 biggest mens doubles events in the world, they were in 3. If theyd won just one of those, we wouldnt be bothering with wildcards, theyd quite possibly be players of the season, period.

26. Liam Broady - WR 788 in the first rankings of 2025 after injury and a worrying concussion incident, Liam.spent much of the year putting in the hard yards, trying to refind himself, on the ITF circuit, winning 4 M15/M15+H titles along the way but still tough work, and he was still WR 605 as late as June. In November though it was a joy to again see so much more the real Liam when from qualifying he reached the Lyon Challenger 75 final ( his first challenger final in over 2 years ), beating WRs 103 and 128 along the way before losing to Struff WR 100. Was up to WR 306 on 29/12. Welcome back, Liam, here's to much more in 2026.

27: Joshua Paris - A new Ch, place in the top 100, 2 wins and 5 runners up makes a successful season for one of our upcoming doubles players.

30. Katy Dunne - in only her fourth tournament back from injury after three months out Katy reached the final of the W35 in Sharm from qualifying, beating three seeds on the way, including the top seed Tara Wuerth WR243. With 24 points from the tournament this will give Katy a massive jump in the rankings from 847 before the tournament to around 674 (OER prediction)

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Tuesday 30th of December 2025 09:45:18 AM

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Tuesday 30th of December 2025 11:00:00 AM