Kyle Brassington is proving to be a man for all surfaces.

Having gone through his French Club League season unbeaten on clay and hard courts in May, the 23-year-old home-town hero has displayed his expertise on grass to qualify for the first round of the $10,000 Futures at Ilkley today.

Having disposed of Jordan McCulloch 6-3, 6-3 on yesterday, the world No 1417 beat another Briton John Richards by the same score to reach tomorrow's first round.

There Brassington will meet former Ilkley British Tour winner Burnham Arlidge.

Brassington said: “I won all five of my singles matches and my five doubles for Clermont Ferrand in the French Pre-National League.

“We got promoted to the National Fourth Division and they want me to come back next spring.”

The Leeds Met University student, who should get his sports performance studies exam results any day now, warmed up for Ilkley last week by qualifying for the Futures Tournament at Manchester.

Victories over Joe Rogers (6-4, 6-0) and Switzerland’s Jessy Kalambay 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) put Brassington into the main draw and he then had a victory over fellow qualifier, big-serving American Edward Louies Oueilhe 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, which brought him up against fourth seed Rudy Coco.

Brassington was defeated 7-5, 7-6 (9-7) by the Frenchman, who eventually lost in the final, and the Yorkshireman said: “I played well.”

He carried that form into Ilkley, and confessed: “I always expected to have to play qualifying here because of my age and my world ranking.

“But it’s better to qualify as you get some matches under your belt, and every bit of my game is working well, particularly my serve, which is important on grass.”

Arlidge, who was born in Melbourne but has extensive experience of living in Britain, won his British Tour title at Ilkley in 2005 when he was 17.

Brassington said of the Basingstoke resident, who is ranked 918 in the world: “We last played two years ago when I beat him on grass at Frinton.”

Tomorrow's main draw inclu-des all four of the boys’ doubles finalists at Wimbledon – winners George Morgan (GB) and Mate Pavic (Czech Republic) and runners-up Oliver Golding (GB) and world junior No 1 Jiri Vesely (Czech Republic).