HEATHER Watson has been handed a wild card into the main draw of the women’s singles at the Lexus Ilkley Trophy.

The Great Britain women’s No.6 is a significant consolation for the $100,000 ITF Women’s World Tour tournament following the withdrawal of last year’s runner-up Jodie Burrage.

The 24-year-old Burrage, whose love for Ilkley was highlighted in their tournament programme this year, has reached the final of the WTA main tour’s Rothesay Nottingham Open, where she will face fellow Briton Katie Boulter today.

Watson, 31, is also in a Nottingham final, having reached the doubles with fellow Ilkley competitor Harriet Dart, where they will today face Ulrikke Eikeri (Norway) and Ingrid Neel (Estonia).

Watson won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Henri Kontinen in 2016, having won a WTA event at the Japan Open four years previously.

As recently as last summer, Guernsey-born Watson reached the fourth round (last 16) of the singles at Wimbledon.

In today’s first round of qualifying at Ilkley, Anna Brogan, who qualified last year, faces ninth seed Zhuoxuan Bai (China), while Maia Lumsden meets 13th seed Maddison Inglis (Australia).

Amarni Banks faces fifth seed Emiliana Arango (Colombia), Sarah Beth Gray plays tenth seed Zeynep Sonmez (Turkey), and Jasmine Conway meets sixth seed Carole Monnet (France).

Wild cards Hannah Klugman and Ella McDonald will play experienced fourth seed Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove and 14th seed Natalija Stevanovic (Serbia) respectively.

Ranah Akua Stoiber, who received a wild card last year, meets 12th seed Arianne Hartono (Netherlands), while fellow wild card Mingge Xu plays 16th seed Antonia Ruzic (Croatia).

Harmony Tan (France), who defeated Serena Williams at last year’s Wimbledon on the way to the fourth round, is seeded 15th in Ilkley qualifying and plays Jesika Maleckova (Czech Republic).

In the men’s qualifying for the $125,000 ATP Challenger at Ilkley yesterday, Charles Broom was the only success in four attempts for Britons, defeating Italy’s Franco Agamenone 6-2, 3-0 retired.

There were straight-sets defeats for double national 18 & under champion Luca Pow, the ambidextrous Stuart Parker, who lost 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 to China’s Juncheng Shang; and the experienced Daniel Cox.