JORDAN Reed-Thomas has reached the semi-finals of the Lexus LTA British Tour for a third successive year at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club.

The Leeds-based fourth seed won two matches yesterday[Friday] to get to the last four, defeating qualifiers Euan Mckenzie 4-1, 4-2 and Kai-Luca Ampaw 4-3 (4), 3-4 (3), 10-8.

Reed-Thomas, 28, will play another qualifier, 17-year-old Glaswegian Kyle Mckay, this morning, while Oxfordshire-based PE teacher Sam Edwards faces top seed Patrick Foley, of Nottingham, in the other half of the draw.

Reed-Thomas, who won this tournament two years ago and was a semi-finalist last year, said of his match against 17-year-old Londoner Ampaw: “The margins are so small in a Fast 4 format indoors and I just managed to come out on top by one or two points.

“The match was decided on his racquet – he was making winners and he was making errors.”

However, yesterday signalled the end of the road for Reed-Thomas’ Headingley and Leeds Beckett University colleague Vassily Psaltopoulos.

Qualifier Psaltopoulos was beaten 4-2, 4-3 (3) by sixth seed Edwards in the last eight.

The latter, 29 from Banbury, was playing his first competitive singles match for six years, having concentrated on doubles.

But it was a match too far for 26-year-old Psaltopoulos, whose 6ft 8in frame was showing the strain this week – firstly via his serving-arm bicep and then via his abs.

Psaltopoulos said: “It was the first time this week that I have played someone older than me, and it did show.

“He had a bit more ‘smart’ in his game, like me, and it was only his third match, while I have had six matches, having come through qualies, which was one too many matches for my body.

“He made it awkward as he knew where to go with his shots. My arm is fine now, but it is my abdomen which is the problem as I was wincing every time I hit the serve.

“I haven’t played six singles in a week in a long time, but he served well, returned well and played well. Nevertheless, I have had a good week and I am very happy.”

Sarah Copley has maintained Yorkshire interest in the women’s singles, where the eighth seed from Sheffield plays Sophya Devas in the semi-finals, with sixth seed Ellie Blackford facing fifth seed Teodora Prisadnikova in the other half of the draw.

Copley, 16, who plays at Abbeydale, defeated 17-year-old Daisy Carpenter, from Kent, 4-3 (4), 4-2 in her quarter-final and said: “I didn’t start off too well but got into it more in the second set.”

The south Yorkshire teenager will give full-time tennis a crack for two years, starting next month, before the option of going to university.

Matches in the semi-finals and finals, which will be played this afternoon, will revert to the traditional best-of-three set format but will again be indoors – as has the tournament all week due to persistent rain.