Magic Miyazaki marches on at Ilkley after dumping out ex-top 10 star Mladenovic

Lily Miyazaki revelled in victory over former top ten star Kristina Mladenovic as she reached the second round of the LTA's Ilkley Trophy in West Yorkshire. The 26-year-old, who benefits from the LTA's NTC Access programme, which is for players ranked 100-200 in singles and 31-100 in doubles, providing cost-free access to courts on all three surfaces, coaching, trainers and the LTA's tournament bonus scheme, beat the second seed 6-7 (4) 6-4 6-4. Ad/> Mladenovic is a significant scalp for the Surrey star, the Frenchwoman having reached a career high of tenth on the WTA singles rankings and also being a nine-time doubles Grand Slam champion — recently winning the French Open alongside Caroline Garcia.

TennisMurray upbeat about Wimbledon chances despite Queen's exit24 MINUTES AGO And Miyazaki, who switched citizenship from Japan earlier this year having lived in Britain for 16 years, believes the victory is a sign of growing confidence on grass. She said: «It was a really tough match. There wasn't much in it, every set was really close.

I think we were both serving really well, but I think in the end it literally came down to a few points. Either of us could have taken it, so I'm really happy that I got through. »I think it's the biggest win of my career.