Australian Open doubles champion Jason Kubler reaches Ilkley final, as does US top seed Emma Navarro

Many matches went the distance on the tournament’s penultimate day as the doubles champions were crowned and the singles finalists settled.

Thirty-year-old Kubler, who made the fourth round of Wimbledon as a qualifier in 2022, found himself a set down to Nottingham finalist Arthur Cazaux of France.

The Aussie, ranked just inside the world’s top 100 at 97, managed to turn the momentum in a tight second set and dominated the third to beat the world No147.

On his 4-6 6-3 6-1 victory against the in-form 20-year-old, Kubler said: “I think it was a very serve dominated match.

“I had incredible difficulty trying to read his serve. I felt in the first two sets he was serving really well.

“I think in the second set when I got that break, he made a couple of errors, which I think he would have wished he could redo. I was serving well, I couldn’t read his serve at all, so it was one of those matches where in the second set it was a point here and there, and luckily with the third set things started to fall my way.”

Kubler, inset, will have direct entry into the Wimbledon championships, and on building momentum on grass, he added: “You can almost get in a routine of winning which I hope will carry over to Wimbledon.

“My last two matches, both my opponents were at least 10 years younger than me.

“If I can just keep calm under pressure, keep trying my best and playing my best, that’s all I can do. I’m happy to get through and give myself an opportunity in the final against a great player.

“It’s definitely going to be tough, I think he’s only dropped the one set this week, whereas I’ve sort of grinded through a lot of my matches.”

Kubler’s final opponent, 27-year-old Sebastian Ofner, has been in great form in 2023, which included making the fourth round at the French Open after coming through qualifying.

The Austrian, seeded third for the tournament at 81 in the world, won 6-3 6-0 against a jaded-looking Zsombor Piros, who had come through three three-set matches to make the semi-final.

In the women’s tournament, 21-year-old Kartal, making her second consecutive semi-final appearance in Ilkley, lost in straight sets to the tournament’s top seed in American Emma Navarro.

Meeting world No 68 Navarro in the final will be 175-ranked Mirjam Bjorklund, 24, after the Swede beat defending champion Dalma Galfi, ranked 132, in three sets.

Natalija Stevanovic (Serbia) and Nao Hibino (Japan) were crowned women’s doubles champions after a close-fought two sets against Maja Chwalinska (Poland) and Jesika Maleckova (Czech Republic) 7-6 (12-10) 7-6 (7-5).

The men’s doubles final went the distance with the top seeds Gonzalo Escobar (Ecuador) and Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kazakhstan) beating third seeds Robert Galloway (USA) and John-Patrick Smith (Australia) in a final set tiebreak 2-6 7-5 11-9.

Saturday’s finals are 11am and 1.30pm.