The Ilkley tournament is always a welcome stop on the annual grass court circuit. Following Toby’s excellent run at the Manchester Northern $10k, Rich, Big Dan and Toby aimed to keep the MCTA/TEAMBATH momentum going.

Qualifying started on Sunday in a gale force wind, very different from the calm and sunny conditions in Manchester. Rich got off to a great start, finding his touch quickly and dismissing Australian Shaun Waters 6-0 6-1 in under an hour.

Dan was having the opposite experience, struggling to find any rhythm. After losing the first set to fellow Brit Alex Golding 6-4 and going a break down 4-2 in the second things looked grim. A determined fightback saw Dan level the set at 5-5. A poor service game  including 3 double faults gave Golding the break and he served out to win the match 6-4 7-5. Disappointment for Dan who faced a long drive home after watching Nadal secure his second Wimbledon Title on the big screen in the Ilkley clubhouse.

After intermittent rain throughout the afternoon Rich got on court for his second match against Eamonn Soulsby. A hesitant start by Rich gave Soulsby the initiative and he won the first set 6-4. However Rich reacted immediately by upping his level of intensity and aggression and breaking Soulsby immediately at the beginning of the second set. Another break gave him a 3-0 lead and the set was won 6-3. Souslby became more dejected as the third set began. Rich was now finding his ‘A’ game and he ran away with the set 6-0 to put him in the qualifying round tomorrow. More reports to follow!

Day 6 in Riga and the fellas are getting ready for the last 16 singles and first round doubles. Sid came through in three sets yesterday after a slow start, but is now ready to step up.

Over the last few days there has been more rain here than during a typical month in the brecon beacons. The sun has made welcomed appearance today however, so hopefully we will have a full day of tennis!

It would make sense to assume that travelling to international junior tennis tournaments in exotic sounding locations is like joining the jet set. NOT quite so!

India, Sid Hazarika, Alex Cockram and myself boarded a seriously overcrowded RyanAir 737 at 7:30 am on 18th of June flying to Latvia for the Riga Open. Instead of mixing with the likes of Richard Branson and Sir Alan Sugar we shared our flight with 150 revellers bound for a weekend of stag parties. One such person was wearing a beautiful silk wedding dress… shame it was a man!

Welcome to all our readers from sunny South Africa where Jade and Naomi competed in the Soweto Open, a $100K tournament in its second year. Soweto is short for South Western Township, is famous as the birth place of Nelson Mandela and the hotbed of activity during the apartheid years. I left SA in 1979 and naturally Soweto has changed immeasurably (for the better) and is now a very vibrant and colourful suburb of Johannesburg that also houses the new impressive centre piece stadium for the 2010 World Cup.

The new Arthur Ashe tennis centre is excellent and the whole experience has been wonderfully hosted, with arguably the best player's dinner for any Challenger in the world. The food, wine and entertainment was first glass in the lekgotla resturant situated in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton a popular area for eating and hanging out with numerous bars, resturants and cafes.

We arrived 3 days early and both girls practised well, but Jade at present is struggling to put her practise form onto the match court and lost her first qualifying match. Naomi struggled to a 4-6 7-5 6-4 first round win over American Courtney Nagle. She breezed through the last round into the main draw to face the 5th seed  Mariya Koryttseva of the Ukraine who has been top 50 and currently is 105.

‎​It is not often I will say a player is robbed but a poor line call at 5-4 30-30 after a nails point was crucial. Naomi still has to recover faster from such a setback. She dropped serve at 5-5 but again fought back to level for the tiebreak which  she lost. The 1st game of the 3rd also hurt as Marya was struggling and Naomi double faulted at 40-15 letting her back in and ended up losing the game. All in all a brave effort showing incredible fighting qualities. The final score after 3.5 hours was 64 67 76. She deserves a lot of credit for the effort in hot conditions. Even at 0-6 in breaker she fought continued to fight eventually losing it 7-2. She will again hit a career high ranking next week so its going in the right direction.

The younger players were in action in Nottingham where Toby Martin fared reasonably well making a quarter-final. Richard Gabb had another disappointing week in Istres, France in singles but is faring better in doubles.