RUMOURS that the AEGON Ilkley Trophy might have to be extended by a day have been scotched by tournament director Charlie Maunder.

With the ATP Challenger men's qualifying having to be finished this morning on the indoor courts, and Maunder admitting that the tournament was behind schedule, talk of a Monday finish within the grounds of Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club have grown.

However, Maunder said last night: "We won't be playing on Monday. We will definitely finish on Sunday.

"We are about eight matches down but we are catching up. The forecast is okay for tomorrow and we are seeing the advantage of having the two inflatable court covers.

"If it wasn't for them, we would be another four hours behind."

The main reason why a Monday finish is a non-starter is because that is when the qualifying competition starts for Wimbledon at the Bank of England Sports Grounds at Roehampton.

In addition, there is the AEGON Open ATP tournament at Nottingham and the WTA AEGON International tournament at Eastbourne. 

In the final round of women's qualifying at Ilkley, there was a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 defeat for 21-year-old Katy Dunne from Hertfordshire, and a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 loss for 25-year-old fellow Briton Lisa Whybourn to American Sanaz Marand.

In the first round of the main draw, there was a 6-4, 7-5 defeat for 18-year-old wild card Freya Christie from Hucknall to fifth seed Ying-Ying Duan from China.

In the first round of the ATP Challenger, Stockport's Liam Broady lost 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to Grega Zemjla from Slovenia.

However, there was early-evening success for fellow British wild card Brydan Klein, who was not as powerful as Dutchman Igor Sijsling but found enough telling returns in the tie-break to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).