Naiktha Bains overjoyed to reach Ilkley Trophy doubles final

Bains, 24, partnering Glaswegian Maia Lumsden, 24, cruised to a straight sets victory against French pair Estelle Cascino and Jessika Ponchet who were the tournament’s number two seeds.

After going a break of serve ahead in the first set against the, the British team lost their advantage against Ponchet, 26, and Cascino,25, who are both ranked in the top 200 of doubles.

A break of serve on a sudden death just restored the lead at 6-5 before Bains managed to serve out the first set.

With the home crowd firmly behind them, Bains and Lumsden took the confidence into the second set to secure a 7-5 6-1 win and progression into the final where they will meet Australia’s Lizette Cabrera and Sujeong Jang of South Korea.

After making her second final of the year with Lumsden, Bains said: “I don’t think me and Maia did much wrong out there.

“From the get go we played the way that we know we can and we kept it going throughout the whole match.

“We didn’t give them a chance to play their game so I feel like it was a dominant performance.

“We’re 100 per cent planning to keep playing together, I’ve just been waiting for Maia to get healthy again as she’s been out a lot for the last year or two.

“I’m over the moon to be in the final of my home tournament.

“The support of the home crowd has been unbelievable, even in quite a small stand in court 2 we really felt the fans back us.

“Hopefully they can get loud and support us in the final and get us through, I love this tournament and I just hope we can go all the way.”

Johnson, 28, and Glaswegian Aidan McHugh, 21, were made to wait for their semi-final against Australian John-Patrick Smith and Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan.

Despite recovering to put up a fight in the second set, Johnson and McHugh fell to a 6-3 7-6 (7-5) defeat to Smith and Ramanathan who will meet in-form British pair Julian Cash and Henry Patten in the final.

There will also be British representation in the final of the women’s singles where London-born players Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage both secured wins to set up a semi-final meeting.

Kartal, 20, opened play on centre court against 205-ranked Simona Waltert from Switzerland who made the semi-final of the junior singles at Wimbledon in 2017.

World no 268 Kartal put on a clinical performance against 21-year-old Waltert, who was struggling with injury, to win 6-2 6-3.

Burrage, 23, continued her excellent form on the grass to pull off another shock against No 4 seed Daria Snigur of Ukraine.

Burrage, ranked 216 in the world, beat the 2019 junior Wimbledon champion 6-2 6-3 to take her third straight sets victory of the week against players ranked in the world’s top 150.

The winner of the Battle of the Brits between Kartal and Burrage will meet either No 1 seed Dalma Galfi from Hungary or third-seeded American Katie Volynets in the final.

American Jack Sock, once ranked eighth in the world, became the last seed standing in the men’s singles after knocking out No 2 seed and world No 71 Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic.

Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, who made the tournament as a lucky loser after entering late and losing in qualifying, is the highest ranked player remaining in the men’s singles.

The world no. 92 dominated in a 6-0 7-5 victory over the Netherlands’ Gijs Brouwer to set up a semi-final against Belgian Zizou Bergs.

Katie Boulter, conqueror of Alison Riske and Caroline Garcia bowed out in Birmingham after losing to former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep in the quarter-finals - 6-4 6-1.