BURLEY-in-Wharfedale and Burley in Leeds - places that can cause confusion between one and the other - both had winners yesterday in the Lexus British Tour at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club.
Teenager Alice Brook, from Burley-in-Wharfedale, defeated Gabriella Zailer-Fletcher 1-4, 4-3 (4), 10-3 in the first round of the women’s singles as play was confined to the club’s indoor courts for a third successive day for the Grade Two event.
Meanwhile, Eleanore Lake, 21, from Burley in Leeds, beat qualifier Lily Harper, 16, from Manchester, 4-3 (0), 2-4, 10-7 in a topsy-turvy encounter.
Things potentially get a lot harder for both today, however, as Brook faces sixth seed Ellie Blackford in the last 16, while Lake meets fifth seed Teodora Prisadnikova.
Also through to the second round is eighth seed Sarah Copley from Sheffield, who defeated qualifier Yvonne Subev 4-3 (7), 4-2 as the Fast 4 format continued as referee Peter Grimsdale tried to keep the tournament on course.
Bowing out, however, are 15-year-old Leeds-based qualifier Folaside Alasede, from Wortley, Huddersfield’s Molly Robinson and fourth seed Zoe Judkowski, from the host club.
The final round of qualifying for the men’s singles was completed yesterday and home club member Tom Horsley bowed out.
The 20-year-old from Addingham, who returns to Adelphi University in New York later this month, was beaten 4-2, 4-1 by Beverley’s Joseph Mazingham.
Horsley said: “I played all right, perhaps a little bit less than I had been playing before, but I still played some decent tennis.
“But Joe played very well, was hitting the ball clean and finding the passing shots when he had to and it came down to a few big points, but I have had a good week overall and am still in the men’s doubles and mixed doubles.”
Mazingham wasn’t the only Yorkshire-based player to qualify, however, as joining him in the main draw are the hard-hitting Vassili Psaltopoulos, Harry Abel and Christian Harrison.
Psaltopoulos, 26, from Headingley, beat 10th seed Tobey Lock 4-2, 4-2, while Abel, who, like Psaltopoulos plays at the John Charles Centre for Sport Leeds, defeated third seed Tom Cowdy 4-1, 4-1.
Eighth seed Harrison, from Sheffield, beat Finn Logue 4-0, 4-1.
Abel now meets top seed Patrick Foley in the main draw, with the winner of that match playing either Mazingham or Matthew Nice.
Psaltopoulos has an all-Yorkshire encounter against home club member Scott Hillerby, while Roundhay coach Cowdy is through as a lucky loser, facing fifth seed Dan Bennett.
JB Pickard, alongside Hillerby the host club’s last hope in the men’s singles, meets another lucky loser in Lock.
Meanwhile, in the Ilkley Open, which is running alongside the British Tour, there was a full-blooded third-round encounter in the men’s singles between Ilkley members Arun Bahia and Tom Horsfall, which went to Bahia 3-4, 4-3, 11-9.
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