QUALIFYING for an ATP Challenger Tour can be a tricky thing as three British men found out yesterday at the Lexus Ilkley Trophy.

All of the trio bowed out in the first round - Derbyshire’s Jay Clarke to seventh seed Benjamin Bonzi, Scot Aidan McHugh in a battling performance on Centre Court to another Frenchman in Hugo Grenier, and Londoner George Loffhagen to experienced American Denis Kudla, who won the Ilkley Trophy in its first year in 2015.

Clarke lost a tactical battle to Bonzi, while Loffhagen, on the comeback trail after an arm injury, simply had to bow to the nous of 31-year-old Kudla.

McHugh rather ran out of steam in an afternoon clash that kept a decent crowd entertained.

Meanwhile, the opening day on Saturday had almost seen a dream debut at ATP Challenger level for teenager Oliver Bonding.

The 16-year-old Briton, who turned heads by winning prominent junior tournament the Banana Bowl in Brazil in March, was beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 by fourth seed Tomas Barrios Vera, of Chile, in the first qualifying round.

The focus of making the main draw now switches to four British women in the final qualifying round of the $100,000 ITF Women’s World Tour event, which is running alongside the 148,625 euros men’s event.

Lauryn John-Baptiste, from Hackney, opens up play on Centre Court against Australia’s Maya Joint, while Leeds’ Naiktha Bains is second match on Court One against Georgia’s Mariam Bolkvadze.

Teenager Ranah Akua Stoiber, meanwhile, plays Aussie Talia Gibson in the second match on Court Two, while Lancastrian Ella McDonald opens up proceedings on Court Four against Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan.

The men have reached the first-round proper so British attention there is on the three wild cards, Ryan Peniston being the last man on Centre Court today against Lukas Klein of the Slovak Republic.

French-born Arthur Fery is on Court One against Duje Ajdukovic of Croatia, while Felix Gill starts proceedings on Court Three against Switzerland’s Dominic Stephan Stricker.