Rain again put an end to play early on Sunday at Day 2 of the Lexus Ilkley Trophy at the Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, but there was still plenty of time to enjoy a packed day of action on the grass court of the West Yorkshire spa town, with plenty to cheer for as a British tennis fan as well.

There were nine women entered into the singles qualifying draw, and most of them were scheduled to complete their first qualifying round matches on Sunday. The start of the day was a mixed bag – 15-year-old Mingge Xu demolished her Croatian opponent 6-3 6-3 on Court 3, but while this was happening, fellow wildcard Ranah Stoiber, 18, was being eliminated on Centre Court, while Maia Lumsden fell in straight sets on Court 1.

Meanwhile, on Court 2, British qualifying wildcard Charles Broom was becoming embroiled in an epic tussle with Austrian second seed Dennis Novak in the final round of Men’s Singles qualifying out on Court 1. Broom, 25, was easily outranked by his opponent and went an early break down in the first set, but fought his way back into the match and took the first set 7-1 in a tiebreak. The second set was also a slog, with the two players again going into a tiebreak, with the result of this one going in the Austrian’s favour.

The deciding set remained on serve until Broom broke the Austrian in the seventh game of the set to take a 4-3 lead at the change of ends. Broom raced to a 40-0 lead in the very next service game and had three opportunities to open up a 5-3 lead, but he lost the next five points in a row to surrender the break of serve and allow the match to return to level pegging.

Once again, the set trundled into a tiebreak – the third of the match – and Broom again had opportunities to win the match, squandered all three match points from 6-3 in the breaker, until eventually he converted at the fourth attempt, eventually winning the match 7-6(1) 6-7(5) 7-6(6) in a marathon effort.

Broom’s next opponent will be Dutchman Gijs Brouwer, who is currently enduring an eight-match losing streak.

There was a break in British action for a while, as this roving reporter and his Ukrainian family watched the sole male Ukrainian in this year’s Singles, Oleksii Krutykh, bow out in straight sets against China’s Juncheng Shang.

By this time, more British women were in action: Amarni Banks lost in straight sets on Centre Court, but Talia Neilson Gatenby, 17, secured a brilliant victory out on Court 5 over Alice Robbe of France, 6-7(8) 6-3 7-5, after coming back from 3-5 down in the final set. Meanwhile, Jasmine Conway, 18, put up a great fight against France’s Carole Monnet on Court 3 – Conway picked up the first set, but Monnet truly grew into the match, and by the third set was simply outhitting Conway, in the end securing a deserved victory over the Brit, 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Britain’s current junior number one, Ella McDonald, 17, took on Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic on Court 2 after that, and stayed with the Serb as much as she could throughout the match. Unfortunately for British fans, experience eventually made the difference, with Stevanovic securing a 6-3 6-4 victory over the British youngster.

Then, the rain came, and two British women’s fates are still yet to be determined, as play was suspended for the rest of the day just after 7pm. Hannah Klugman, 14, was level at one-set-all at the close of play against Dutch fourth seed Lesley Kerkhove, more than twice Klugman’s age. Experience again shone through in the first set, with Klugman going 4-0 down relatively quickly, and complaining to her coach at one point about the fact that she wasn’t being clever enough during points. At 1-1 in the second set, though, play was suspended briefly following a rain shower, and Klugman came out firing in the second set, taking Kerkhove to a tiebreak and brilliantly winning it to stay in contention. Before the ladies could start again, the rain put an end to things.

And Sarah Beth Grey led her match by a set to love after serving a bagel to her Turkish opponent in the first set, winning it 6-0, before rain halted proceedings.

Tomorrow’s order of play will see Mingge Xu attempting to reach the main draw at 10:30am on Centre Court, with Hannah Klugman set to resume her unfinished match second on Court 1, and Sarah Beth Grey resuming second on Court 2 as well. Talia Nelson Gatenby will also be second out onto Court 5, while if you want a day of Men’s Singles main draw action, stick to Court 3, where five successive Men’s Singles first round matches will take place, including that of Charles Broom.