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Nick Howell (real tennis)

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Nick Howell
Full nameNick Howell
Country (sports)Australia Australia
ResidenceUnited States United States
Born (1986-09-10) 10 September 1986 (age 38)
PlaysRight-handed
ClubAiken Tennis Club
World Championships
Open SinglesFinal Eliminator (2023)
First Round Eliminator (2020)
Open DoublesF (2019)
Singles
Career titles1
Highest ranking3
Current ranking3
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenF (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024)
British OpenSF (2022, 2023)
French OpenW (2023)
US OpenF (2020)
Doubles
Career titles6
Highest ranking3
Current ranking3
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenW (2018, 2020, 2023)
French OpenW (2024)
British OpenW (2018, 2021)
US OpenF (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)

Nick Howell (born 10 September 1986) 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.

Career

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Nick Howell was born in Bordeaux, France where his father, Jonathan Howell, worked as the real tennis professional. Jonathan Howell won the Australian Open Doubles in 1989. In 1990, Jonathan Howell was appointed as head professional at the newly built court at The Oratory School in Woodcote, Oxfordshire. Both Nick Howell and his brother Benny Howell were educated at the Oratory School. Benny Howell went on to play county cricket for Hampshire and Gloucestershire. Nick Howell grew up playing real tennis and participated in the IRTPA Satellite when it was held at the Oratory in 2005, as well as competing at the Australian Open in 2006. Shortly after, Jonathan Howell would move to the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club in 2008.[1]

After leaving school, Nick Howell turned professional in golf. From age 18 onwards, Howell competed in the PGA EuroPro Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia and the Jamega Tour. However, after seven years as a golf professional, Howell failed to get a tour card and retired from competitive golf. Instead, he returned to real tennis, moving to the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club where his father was the deputy head professional. Howell registered as an Australian real tennis player, instead of his country of birth (France) or education (United Kingdom) due to his time spent in Australia. His brother Benny Howell registered as English for the purposes of his sport.

Howell returned to competitive real tennis at the 2012 Australian Open, losing in straight sets to World Champion Robert Fahey in the first round. Through the 2013 season, Howell competed in the second tier tournaments such as the US Pro Satellite, the IRTPA Satellite and the Victorian Open. During this year, he won the Taylor Cup - a tournament for new professionals - against women's World Champion Claire Fahey. He also reached the 2013 Australian Open Final partnered with Camden Riviere. In 2014, Howell made his debut appearance at the remaining three Open tournaments - the British, French and US Opens. He won US Pro Satellite and Tasmanian Open in 2014, but he had a breakout year on the doubles court, reaching the semi final stage of the British and US Opens partnered with Australian Amateur Kieran Booth and rackets World Champion James Stout respectively. In both tournaments, Howell was defeated by Camden Riviere and Tim Chisholm.

In 2015, Howell reached his first singles Open semi final at the Australian Open, bringing his handicap better than scratch in the process. Howell moved from Melbourne to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. As he was now a resident American professional, he competed in and reached the final of the US National, losing in 5 sets to John Lumley He was now regularly reaching quarter finals of singles competitions and semi finals of doubles competitions.[2]

Following his defeat at the 2017 World Doubles Championship at Prested Hall, Robert Fahey partnered with Howell as a new long-term doubles partnership. They debuted their pairing at the 2017 US Open Doubles competition, reaching the semi final. In 2018, the pair won the Australian and British Opens together and reached the final of the 2019 World Doubles Championship in Hobart.[3]

Howell reached his first Open final at the 2019 Australian Open. Combined with the rest of his results from the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Howell was eligible to compete for the 2020 Real Tennis World Championship. As the fourth seed, Howell drew first seed Camden Riviere in the First Round Eliminator. The match was played as a best of 9 set match at Howell's alma mater at The Oratory School.[4] Although the match was scheduled over two days, as Riviere won the first four sets he had the option to play the fifth set on the first day. Riviere exercised that option and won the final set and thus the match.[5] The final of the championships was ultimately delayed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks later, Howell reached the final of the US Open for the first time, again losing to Camden Riviere.

In 2020, Howell moved to Bordeaux, the city of his birth, to become the head professional at the new court in Mérignac. However, immediately after his move, France went into lockdown and Howell was unable to compete in competitions. Once lockdowns had lifted, Howell hosted the 2022 World Doubles Championship at his home club in Bordeaux.[6] However, an injury during the semi final prevented further progress in the tournament. Howell moved to become head professional at the Aiken Tennis Club in late 2022.[7] Howell would make all four doubles Open finals in 2023, including winning the Australian Open with Chris Chapman.[8]

Another Australian Open Singles Final in 2022[9] meant that Howell was again eligible to challenge for the 2023 Real Tennis World Championship. This time as second seed following the retirement of Robert Fahey, Howell hosted the First Round Eliminator at Aiken against Ben Taylor-Matthews. The match was again a best of 9 format. After the first day, Howell lead 3 sets to 1, with the first three sets going to 5 games all. Howell dropped the first set of the secon day, but rallied to with the final two sets and the match. In the Final Eliminator, Howell played John Lumley at Lumley's home court in Philadelphia in a best of 13 set match.[10] Howell only managed to win the seventh set, and failed to force the match in to a third day. Later in 2023, Howell won his first Open title at the French Open, defeating Steve Virgona in the final.[11] In 2024, Howell reached the Australian Open final for the third consecutive year, and won the Champions Trophy at the Royal Tennis Court, defeating Ben Taylor-Matthews in the final. He failed in his defence of the French Open, losing in the final to Camden Riviere, but teamed up with Camden for his first French Open doubles title.

Performance timeline

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Singles

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Current through the 2024 French Open[12]

Tournament 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 SR W–L Win %
World Championship
World Championship NH DNQ NH DNQ NH DNQ NH DNQ NH DNQ NH DNQ NH DNQ NH 1R 2R NH 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 1–1 0–0 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A 1R A A A A A 1R A 1R SF QF QF SF F QF NH F F F 0 / 12 17–12 59%
British Open A A A A A A A A A 2R QF 2R 2R QF QF NH QF SF SF 0 / 9 11–9 55%
French Open A A A A A A A A A QF A SF 1R QF SF NH SF W F 1 / 8 15–7 68%
US Open A A A A A A A A A QF A 2R QF QF QF F A 1R QF QF 0 / 9 8–10 44%
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–0 2–4 3–2 4–4 4–4 5–4 7–5 2–2 1–1 6–4 10–3 4–2 1 / 37 48–37 56%
IRTPA Sanctioned Tournaments
Champions Trophy NH SF QF QF NH A QF W 1 / 5 6–7 46%
European Open A A A A A NH A A A NH QF NH 0 / 1 0–1 0%
IRTPA Championship Q1 A A NH A A A 1R 1R A QF NH QF QF SF NH 0 / 6 5–6 45%
US Pro A A A A A A A A Q1 1R QF QF SF QF QF NH A QF QF SF 0 / 9 10–9 53%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–1 2–3 1–1 5–3 3–3 3–4 0–0 0–0 1–1 1–3 5–2 1 / 21 21–23 48%
Career Statistics
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Career
Tournaments 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 5 5 5 7 7 7 2 1 6 7 5 Career total: 61
Titles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Career total: 2
Finals 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 3 Career total: 8
Overall win–loss 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–2 0–1 2–5 5–5 5–5 9–7 8–7 10–9 2–2 1–1 7–6 12–7 12–5 73–63 54%
Win %  –  0%  –   –   –   –   –  0% 0% 29% 50% 50% 56% 53% 53% 50% 50% 54% 63% 71% Career total: 53%

Doubles

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Tournament 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 SR W–L Win %
World Championship
World Championship NH DNQ NH QF NH DNQ NH F NH SF NH SF 0 / 4 3–4 43%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 2–1 0–0 0–0 1–1 0–0 0–0 0 / 3 3–3 50%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open QF F QF SF SF SF W SF W NH F W F 3 / 12 20–9 69%
British Open A A SF QF 1R F W F NH W SF F 2 / 9 15–7 68%
French Open A NH QF A QF SF SF F NH F F W 1 / 8 10–7 59%
US Open A A SF A SF SF F F SF A F F QF 0 / 9 12–8 60%
Win–loss 0–1 2–1 4–4 1–2 2–4 5–4 9–2 7–4 4–1 3–0 7–4 9–2 2–2 6 / 37 55–31 64%
IRTPA Sanctioned Tournaments
IRTPA Championship NH A A F NH 0 / 1 1–1 50%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 1 1–1 50%
Career Statistics
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Career
Tournaments 1 1 4 3 4 4 5 5 2 1 5 4 4 Career total: 42
Titles 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 Career total: 7
Finals 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 4 1 1 3 3 2 Career total: 20
Overall win–loss 0–1 2–1 4–4 1–3 2–4 5–4 10–3 9–5 4–1 3–0 8–5 9–2 4–3 61–36 63%
Win % 0% 67% 50% 25% 33% 56% 77% 64% 80% 100% 62% 82% 57% Career total: 63%

References

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  1. ^ Ashton, Richard. "REAL TENNIS: Nick Howell launches bid to become World Champion at Oratory School". Reading Chronicle. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Nick Howell - Player Profile". Tennis and Rackets Association. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  3. ^ "Real Tennis World Doubles Championship 2019". Tennis and Rackets Association.
  4. ^ "Oratory to host world tournament elimination clash". Henley Standard.
  5. ^ Ashton, Richard. "REAL TENNIS: Brave Nick Howell beaten by Camden Riviere in World Eliminator". Reading Chronicle.
  6. ^ Queuille, Marjorie. "Gironde : Nick Howell exerce le métier rare de maître paumier à Mérignac". Sud Ouest.
  7. ^ Biles, Dede. "Aiken Tennis Club 'probably the most unique thing about Aiken,' Tucker tells Rotary Club". Aiken Standard. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  8. ^ Prenn, Tamara. "Real Tennis British Open makes triumphant return to Queen's Club". SW Londoner. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  9. ^ "Australian Open 2022 Wed 10 - Tue 16 August". Royal Melbourne Tennis Club.
  10. ^ "Howell Joins Lumley in FE". International Real Tennis Professionals Association. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  11. ^ "L'Open de France de Jeu de Paume : un spectacle de classe mondiale à Paris !". Federation Française Tennis.
  12. ^ "Player Profile – Nick Howell". International Real Tennis Professionals Association.
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