LIAM Broady's coach Dave Sammel was not downcast after his pupil suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the Fuzion 100 Ilkley Trophy this week.

The British wild card had four match points in the tenth game of the second set against eighth seed Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) but lost 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 on Centre Court in the first round of the men's singles.

The 24-year-old from Stockport was not about to be heavily criticised by Sammel, however.

The South African-born coach, who lives in Burley-in-Wharfedale, said: "Liam did everything right to win the match.

"However, he got a bit nervous in that 10th game and then did well to take it to a tie-break, but this is a maturing year."

Broady, whose sister Naomi attended Woodhouse Grove School and has been inside the top 100 women players, tried to break down the backhand of a player who has beaten Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and almost managed it.

Left-hander Broady got into the draw direct with his world ranking of 168 – 12 slots below former world No 1 Andy Murray – but the other four Britons in the draw had to rely on wild cards into the $150,000 ATP Challenger tournament, and none of them won a set.

George Loffhagen lost 6-1, 6-4 to qualifier Hiroki Moriya (Japan), Alex Ward – on the comeback trail after five months out with golfers' elbow – went out 6-3, 6-3 to third seed Thoas Fabbiano (Italy), Aidan McHugh fell 6-3, 6-4 to Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik and Jack Draper lost 6-4, 6-2 to Darian King (Barbados).

There were some notable successes in the first round of the men's doubles, however, as wild cards Broady and Scott Clayton defeated 2017 semi-finalists Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana of Thailand 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

Meanwhile, Joe Salisbury – runner-up last year with Brydan Klein – partnered former Wimbledon men's doubles champion Freddie Nielsen (Denmark) to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over top seeds Marcelo Arevalo (Spain) and Hans Podlipnik-Castello (Chile).

There were defeats, however, for Luke Bambridge and Keighley-born Jonny O'Mara by 4-6, 6-3, 10-7 to Indians N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardnam, while Jack Findel-Hawkins and Leeds' Luke Johnson went down 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-3) to fourth seeds Jonathan Eysseric and Hugo Nys of France.

The women's tournament, which is a $100,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament, has also been affected by intermittent rain, and the in-form wild card Gabby Taylor (GB) lost 6-1, 6-3 to the Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska in the first round.

There were defeats in the qualifying for Britons Freya Christie, Emily Appleton, Eden Silva, Alicia Barnett, Sarah Beth Grey and Ella Taylor.

British men's defeats in qualifying came from Billy Harris, Lloyd Glasspool, former semi-finalist Brydan Klein, Finn Bass, Johnson and Jonathan Gray.