Josh Goodall’s comeback is finally underway.

The 24-year-old from Basingstoke, who was ranked as high as 184 in the world last July, has slipped almost 200 places on the back of a string of narrow defeats and a skin complaint.

However, the British No 5 has won his first tournament since Nottingham last September, when he defeated David Rice 6-4, 6-3.

Ironically, his victim was again Rice as he pocketed the men’s singles crown at the $10,000 JM Glendinning Group International Tournament at Ilkley.

After his 6-3, 7-6 victory in the final on Saturday, British Davis Cup player Goodall said: “I have been playing well but lost a series of close matches and I have also suffered from hives, which put me out for three months.

“Tennis is an expensive sport and it can cost you £50,000 a year to play it, and that is without a coach.

“The LTA helped me a lot until I was 18 but they have stopped my funding now.

“But not only do I feel I can get back to where I used to be, I believe in myself enough to feel I can get into the top 100 in the world – and so do my parents, who have been backing me.”

Goodall broke serve to lead 5-3 in the first set and took it with a love game, including reaching over the net on set point to hit an acutely-angled smash that bounced towards the stand.

Rice, whose sliced serve was working well, broke in the fourth game of the second set on the way to establishing a 5-2 advantage.

But Goodall, who began the showpiece match wearing a pair of red shorts but changed them to white after falling 4-1 behind in the second set – “they didn’t feel right” – broke back to take the set into a tie-break, which he won 7-2 to end his relative title drought.

Fourth seed Rice, 20, from Hertfordshire, said: “I served well and it was close in the second set but I didn’t quite play the big points well enough.”

The world No 489 added: “But I got to the semi-finals at Manchester last week and I have had a good week here and played pretty well.

“My aim is to get up to 350 by the end of the year and then up to 250 next year.”

Rice had beaten Ilkley’s Kyle Brassington 6-4, 6-1 in the second round.

Goodall, who qualified for both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2006, won $1,300 for his singles victory.

And he added a further $315 for taking the doubles with Andrew Fitzpatrick, the unseeded pair defeating Indian second seeds Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan 3-6, 7-5 (10-3 in the super tie-break) in the final.