Real life started to get in the way after a marvellous week of watching tennis at the Lexus Ilkley Trophy last week at the Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club close to my home town of Addingham. I managed to spend time at the club for at least a couple of hours every day until finals day on Saturday, at which point my real job kicked in, and I was required to head over to Knaresborough for the afternoon to conduct a wedding.

My time at the ILTSC was limited on Friday as well, as I was only able to be there for around an hour and a half of play, but I was able to catch the remaining British players in action in their respective semi-finals.

The last Brit left in the Singles, Sonay Kartal, was in action in her semi-final against top seed Emma Navarro on Centre Court early on Friday. I hadn’t managed to see any of her previous matches due to them clashing with the rest of my working schedule, so it was refreshing to see the 21-year-old live for the first time.

It wasn’t, however, a happy time for Kartal. The Brit really struggled on her second serve, winning just 22% of points after missing her first serve, and although she hit relatively well in the first set, her American opponent simply wasn’t making any mistakes, and relied mainly on consistency and Kartal’s errors to clinch the first set 6-2. An early break came in the second set, too, and Kartal’s resistance was broken – her body language was that of someone who has no idea how she was supposed to get back into the match.

And so it proved – Kartal lost 6-2 6-1 in just over one hour. That being said, Kartal was entered into this competition as a wildcard, and has had a brilliant week despite that tough defeat in the semis. She took out the fourth seed in the first round and the fifth seed in the quarters, so she must be pleased with an encouraging week.

The other Brits in action on Friday were Holly Hutchinson and Madeleine Brooks, who were in the Women’s Doubles semi-final against Nao Hibino in Natalija Stevanovic. The girls started solidly on Court 1, and looked to be causing problems for their more experienced and higher-ranked opponents, but eventually experience won through, and the Brits were eliminated 6-4 6-2 by the pairing that would eventually become the champions of the competition later that day.

With no British interest on Singles finals day on Saturday, crowds were treated simply to high-quality tennis on Centre Court, with the Men’s final following the Women’s final. In the women’s final, something of an upset – Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden, unseeded, defeated top seed Emma Navarro 6-4 7-5 to clinch the title, while in the men’s final, fourth seeded Aussie Jason Kubler beat third seed Sebastian Ofner 6-4 6-4 in another competitive final. All four finalists are likely to be involved at Wimbledon, with Bjorklund highly likely to pick up the main draw wildcard for winning this year’s event; Kubler will be highly-ranked enough to qualify directly for the main draw without the wildcard.

In a speech following the Men’s final, one of the tournament organisers spoke at length about how he hopes the Ilkley Trophy can continue to grow and perhaps even reach the level of an ATP or WTA 250 event in future. So watch this space for the chance of some even bigger names heading to Ilkley in the not-to-distant future.