YEN-Hsun Lu completed his grass-court preparation for Wimbledon in fine style at a soggy AEGON Ilkley Trophy today.

The 32-year-old from Chinese Taipei defeated unseeded Frenchman Vincent Millot 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in a match that was half completed on grass and finished off indoors.

Lu, who is on the comeback trail after an elbow injury, has thus had a fine three weeks on the ATP Challenger Tour, being a finalist at Manchester and a winner last Sunday at Surbiton.

"It is a long time since I won back-to-back Challengers," admitted the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, who looked a class act.

"I have played a lot of matches over the past three weeks but I am suffering no pain and I feel surprisingly good physically."

Former world No 33 Lu was leading 7-6, 1-0 with a break of serve when steady drizzle interrupted play outdoors.

Lu, who then had a 15-minute knock-up with his coach indoors (Millot had no such practice), won five of the remaining seven games once they switched to a hard court and said: "I served well and tried to keep him under pressure for the first three or four shots in a rally, and the tactic worked."

Lu did not need the Wimbledon wild card that was on offer for winning at Ilkley because his world ranking is high enough to gain him direct entry but the failure of world No 146 Millot to triumph cost him the chance of going straight into Wimbledon a week tomorrow.

The 30-year-old left hander said: "Going inside changed everything but he played well."

Millot, who lives in Dijon, at least had the consolation of knowing that he will be at a career-high when the latest ATP rankings are announced tomorrow, the points he has won at Ilkley, which included knocking out top seed Jordan Thompson (Australia) and last remaining Briton Brydan Klein, taking him above his previous best of 144.

The rain meant that it was a difficult week for ATP supervisor Stephane Cretois and tournament director Charlie Maunder and his staff.

However, Maunder said: "You make contingency plans for things and I think we used them all, but the inflatable court covers certainly helped to save us 40 minutes every time that we used them."