A Double Crown 124 Years In The Making
Claire Fahey joins Peter Latham as the only person to hold the Real Tennis and Rackets World Singles titles at the same time
Final score: Claire Fahey bt Cesca Sweet 15/8 18/13 15/0 15/4
With one decisive win at the Queen’s Club today, 34-year-old Claire Fahey became the first person in 124 years to hold both the World Real Tennis Singles and World Rackets Singles titles simultaneously — a feat last achieved by Peter Latham in 1904.
The Ladies World Rackets Championship had lain vacant, and on her third challenge Fahey seized it — defeating Cesca Sweet to add the Rackets crown to a Real Tennis Singles title she first won in 2011 and has defended seven times without defeat. The applause in the historic courts of the Queen’s Club marked not just a victory, but a moment that will be recorded in the annals of both sports.
“To hold the world singles title in both Real Tennis and Rackets at the same time places Fahey in a category of one — the greatest all-court champion the modern game has ever seen.”
Clair's unbroken Real Tennis record is remarkable in its own right. But today’s win at Queen’s Club transforms a great champion into a historic one. In
The Numbers
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Sports
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Titles
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Years
The Road to a double crown
2011
Won the Real Tennis Singles World Championship — the beginning of an undefeated real tennis reign
2026
Won the World Rackets Singles Championship, Queen’s Club — the second crown. History is made!
Last time this was achieved
The only previous simultaneous holder of both world singles titles was Peter Latham in 1902 — over a century before Fahey walked onto the court at Queen’s Club today.
Rackets, one of the oldest racket sports in the world, has long been played within the walls of the Queen’s Club. That it should be the setting for this moment feels entirely fitting. Fahey’s third challenge for the Rackets crown ultimately proved the successful one — and in winning it, she joins a name from the Edwardian era as one of only two people in history to have stood at the summit of both games at once.
At 34, and with a record that admits no blemish across the most demanding titles in her sport, Claire Fahey stands as the greatest singles champion either game has ever produced.
Claire Fahey World Real Tennis Singles and World Rackets Singles title holder
