Lancashire tennis player Fabrice Higgins has claimed a doubles title at the Australian Open Intellectual Disability Championships.

The AO25 Intellectual Disability Championships took place at Melbourne Park, Australia, from January 24 to 26, with four British players reaching finals and two winning titles.

This year marked the third annual Intellectual Disability Championships and Deaf Championships, organised in partnership with Virtus, the international sports federation for athletes with intellectual impairments.

Held alongside the Australian Open, the tournament showcased the talents of athletes with intellectual impairments, with Mr Higgins among the number of British players, and took place following the first tennis major of the year.

In the men’s singles, all three British entrants, including Mr Higgins, were placed on the same side of the draw, meaning only one could progress to the final.

Mr Higgins overcame fellow Brits Oliver Beadle and Aidan Moody in straight sets in his quarter-final and semi-final matches, setting up a final against his Australian doubles partner, top seed Archie Graham.

The final was ‘close-fought’, with Mr Higgins losing the first set narrowly and then being unable to recover, going down 6-4, 6-0.

Despite this, the number one ranked II-1 doubles player had more to compete for.

Mr Higgins and Mr Graham ‘convincingly’ claimed the men’s doubles title without dropping a set, defeating the British pairing of Mr Beadle and Mr Moody 6-1, 6-3 in just 57 minutes in the final.

This came after they triumphed over the Australian-French partnership of Damian Philips and Benjamin Coulier with a straight sets win (6-2, 6-3) and secured a ‘walkover win’ against the Australian pair of Joshua Holloway and Mitchell James.

This ensured silverware was brought back to Lancashire from Down Under.

Beadle and Moody secured second place in the men’s doubles competition after a walkover against Joshua Holloway and Mitchell James and a 7-6(6), 6-1 win over Philips and Coulier.

On the women’s side, Britain’s Anna McBride cemented her top position in the rankings after winning the talented Scot claimed her third consecutive singles title at the Australian Open.