Ilkley Tennis Week: Top two seeds progress to quarter-finals

Top two seeds Sean Hodkin and Joe Tyler bent but they did not break as they reached today’s(Friday) quarter-finals of the men’s singles.

Hodkin, world ranked 1285, was taken to a champions’ tie-break for a second successive round but defeated wild card Anthony Weingarten 4-6, 6-3 (10-6) and will now face the unseeded Alexander Maggs.

Tyler, who is ranked 462 places below Hodkin, beat Robert Cowley 5-7, 6-2 (10-8) and now plays qualifier Kyle Rae.

The latter is playing at Ilkley for a second successive week as he helped Northamptonshire to promotion at Stourton Road from Men’s Group Three of County Week. The two matches on Centre Court were very contrasting, with Ruairidh Fraser defeating Max Stewart in a battle of 22-year-olds, with both players managing to hit through the wind as Fraser won 7-5, 2-6 (11-9) in a see-saw affair.

The previous contest on the show court, between 17-year-old Roan Jones and 23-year-old qualifier Dan Bennett, was more of a battle of slice and bunt as Jones triumphed 6-3, 6-4.

Fraser now faces fifth seed Jordan Reed-Thomas, while Jones plays Deji Thomas-Smith in a clash of unseeded players.

The women’s singles will definitely have a qualifier in the last four as Halle Pringle faces Eva Williamson.

However, four seeds have reached the quarter-finals, including athletic top seed Esther Adeshina, who meets the unseeded Ruby Hart.

Eighth seed Jessica Hill plays fourth seed Kira Reuter, while third seed Isabelle Marshall faces Jojo Bach.

Hill beat lucky loser Rebecca Heaps 10-8 in a champions’ tie-break, while Bach emerged from a 10-7 final-set tie-breaker against fifth seed Hannah Smith.