Doubles

The last but one day of this year’s Ilkley Trophy saw the singles semi-finals and doubles finals. Rain had disrupted the tournament earlier in the week but they had more or less caught up by today. I stuck to the centre court, although my elevated seat meant I also had a clear view of No. 1 court so half followed matches there too.

First up was a women’s semi-final, with American top seed Emma Navarro (World Rank 68) comfortably beating Britain’s Sonay Kartel 6-2, 6-1.

The men’s semis followed, first another one sided game with Sebastian Offner (Austria, WR 81) winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 against Zsombor Piros (Hungary, WR 88). The other semi was much more competitive and the best game of the day, with Aussie Jason Kubler (WR 97) coming through in three close sets against the up and coming French player Arthur Cazaux (WR 147 and last week’s beaten finalist against Andy Murray at Nottingham).

Today’s image is from the Men’s Doubles Final, where top seeds Escobar and Nedovyesov (left) beat Galloway and Smith 2-6, 7-5, 11-9 (doubles matches at this Challenger level being settled by a championship tie-break rather than a third set). Today’s extras shows the winners holding aloft the trophy.

Luckily the rain held off, so it was a good full day’s action.