Kyle Brassington has received a massive boost to his confidence.

The 23-year-old from Ilkley notched one of his best victories last week on the way to a final.

The world No 1399, who splits his time between tournaments and his sports performance studies at Leeds Met University, defeated top seed Josh Goodall, who is ranked 1,000 places above him, on his way to the last day of the AEGON British Tour event at Bath University.

Brassington, who was seeded sixth, had a first-round bye before defeating wild card Nikki Roenn 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, Goodall 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals and Thomas Burn 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 retired in the semi-finals.

In the final, the Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club member lost 6-2, 6-4 to second seed Marcus Willis.

Goodall won the men’s singles title at the $10,000 JM Glendinning Group International Tournament at Ilkley last July and has ambitions to crack the world’s top 100, and Brassington said: “I wouldn’t call the win over Josh the best of my career but it is right up there.

“My old coach Jim Edgar, who used to work with me at Bolton, said to me ‘You never know which Josh is going to turn up’ - but I played well and I served well.”

Brassington said: “The courts at Leeds Met have just been re-laid and are slower and higher bouncing than those at Bath, so it took me a while to get adjusted.

“That is one reason why I was taken to a tie-break in my first match, while the other was that I had had no opportunity to practice on the courts at Bath but once I had taken the first set against Nikki, I played better and got my eye in.

“Tom Burn, who was brought up in Yorkshire before moving away, was ranked as high as 611 in the world in October 2005 but I played well against him.

“I had five or six break points in the first set but didn’t take them. I won the tie-break but he retired early in the second set after tweaking a muscle in his leg.”

Brassington’s final opponent Willis, who is ranked 606 in the world, presented a different problem to his previous matches.

The Yorkshireman said: “He is a left-hander and I don’t get many chances to practice with them.

“The spins and angles are all different and he uses a lot of slice and beat me well.”

Nevertheless, it was a good week at Bath for Brassington, who won £250 for reaching the final of the Grade Two tournament.

He said: “I had played my heart out for Yorkshire at Corby last November in the Winter County Cup and lost three hard-fought matches.

“It was nice to have some reward here for all my work - especially as it was in front of one of our selectors for the World University Games, where I hope to represent Britain in China later this year.

“Also the money will be useful but I think I will try and play in Grade One British Tour tournaments in future because the money is better and I want to earn enough to play in more world-ranking tournaments.”