Day 2 at the LTA’s Lexus Ilkley Trophy began in similar fashion to the first with rain showers across West Yorkshire causing a two hour delay.
Saturday’s wash out meant that all ITF Women’s qualifiers were moved inside to avoid an already inflated schedule on the grass courts and thus Yorkshire’s Naiktha Bains faced a last-minute surface switch.
Bains battled hard against YeXin Ma to advance come through in straight sets. Leeds-born Bains edged the first set tiebreak before avoiding the same nervy ending, 7-6(5) 7-5.
Bains said: “It’s been a tough week leading into it with the rain in Nottingham and here yesterday.
“My prep, to be honest, hasn’t been what I wanted but I’m proud of myself to come through.
“Hopefully things will be better in the next few days and I can get some more matches on the grass as my home tournament, that would be great.”
On the grass courts Derbyshire’s Jay Clarke began his qualifying campaign against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi. Clarke was broken twice in the opening set, but brought the fight to Bonzi in the second set. The 25-year-old couldn’t make a dent on the Frenchman’s serve and fell 6-3, 7-5 after 90 minutes of play.
World No. 807 Ella McDonald recorded the Trophy’s first upset of the week, taking out China’s Sijia Wei on the indoor courts of the Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club. Saturday’s wash out meant that all ITF Women’s qualifiers were moved inside to avoid an inflated schedule on the grass courts. The 18-year-old delivered a fantastic performance beating Wei, 611 places her senior, in straight sets 6-2 6-3.
Fellow Brit Lauryn John-Baptise joined McDonald in the 2nd round of qualifying as she progressed past world No. 206 Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand, 6-3 7-5.
George Loffhagen (GBR) lost out to the 2015 Ilkley champion Denis Kudla on Centre Court in just over an hour. Kudla proved his class on the lawn courts of Ilkley as he beat the 23-year-old 6-3 6-2.
Glasweigan Aidan McHugh followed on Court One as he faced Hugo Grenier and took the first set in dominant fashion, but failed to capitalise on his advantage. Grenier battled back and completed his comeback just inside two hours, 1-6 6-2 6-0.
The Brits featured heavily throughout the day with 19-year-old Ranah Akua Stoiber dismantling Australian Maddison Inglis 6-1 6-0 in 49 minutes. 17-year-old Isabelle Lacy lost out to Nigina Abduraimova (UZB) having pushed her close in a tight first set. Lacy led 7-6 in the tiebreak, but the 13-time ITF champion closed out on the opening set before taking the second 7-6(7) 6-2.
Brits Allegra Korpanec Davies, Sally Pethybridge and Hephzibah Oluwadare all fell to straight set defeats in qualifying to round out action on Day Two.
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