Harriet Dart and heather watson won the W100 Gifu doubles title in Japan on Sunday, beating Catherine Harrison and Dalayna Hewitt 3-6, 6-3, 10-4 in the final. It was only their second tournament together since 2024, and the result gave them a timely lift after a long gap between joint appearances.
The win came in a week that also delivered a run of British doubles success elsewhere, with Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara taking the Mutua Madrid Open title, Maia Lumsden retaining her Saint-Malo WTA 125 crown with Isabelle Haverlag, and Freya Christie and Eden Silva claiming the Nottingham doubles final. For Dart and Watson, the Gifu title also revived a partnership that had previously taken them to a Nottingham final, and this time they finished the job after dropping the opening set.
Watson and Dart had played only one previous tournament together since 2024 before arriving in Gifu, which made the title run stand out even more. Their final followed a familiar pattern for doubles at this level: a slow start, a response in the second set and a decisive match tiebreak, which they won 10-4 against Harrison and Hewitt. The scoreline reflected a match that turned quickly once Dart and Watson found their rhythm.
The broader picture is that British players collected multiple trophies across Europe and Asia in the same week, but Gifu mattered most for Watson and Dart because it showed the partnership still has obvious value when they are in the same draw. The question now is whether they can build on the title and turn a rare reunion into something more regular, after proving in Japan that the pairing still works under pressure.
