AUSTRALIAN Matthew Ebden and American Denis Kudla are to meet in a final for the second successive weekend in the Aegon Ilkley Trophy today.

South Africa-born Ebden and Ukraine-born Kudla met in the decider at Surbiton last Sunday, with the 27-year-old from Perth triumphing 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) after saving two match points.

Ebden won the easier of yesterday's semi-finals at Ilkley, despatching French Open men's doubles winner Ivan Dodig (Croatia) – who was seeded seventh – 6-1, 6-2 in just 53 minutes.

Kudla, who is unseeded like Ebden, had the slightly harder test before overcoming Irish No 1 James McGee 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), with the Dubliner having fallen to Ebden in the Surbiton semi-finals.

Perth-based Ebden said: "I have been playing well recently – but I knew I would have to play well against Ivan after him winning the French Open men's doubles."

Surbiton and Ilkley included, the 6ft 2in Australian has reached the quarter-finals or better in his last seven tournaments, a run which contains a last-eight appearance in Manchester on grass a fortnight ago.

It was also the quarter-finals of the women's singles at Ilkley and it was hard not to feel sorry for top-seeded German Annika Beck.

She led 6-0, 5-2 against gutsy Polish fifth seed Magda Linette but had some bad luck with the line calls before bowing out 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 in six minutes under two hours.

The 23-year-old from Poznan will now play 19-year-old Estonian Anett Kontaveit, who kept up her run of fine form with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over China's Yafan Wang.

Qualifier Kontaveit has already won six matches at Ilkley to follow up her victory at Eastbourne a fortnight ago and her semi-final display at Surbiton.

The other semi-final is between German fourth seed Anna-Lena Friedsam and second-seeded Czech Denisa Allertova.

Former Wimbledon champions Cara Black, whose volleying was crisp, and Lisa Raymond reached the women's doubles semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Wang and Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama.