Florida-based Ross Conn-olly is returning to his home-town club next week to play in the British Tour event at Ilkley.

The 21-year-old was coached at the club by Simon Ick-ringill until leaving for the famous Nick Bollettieri Ten-nis Academy - the base for Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and originally Andre Agassi - three years ago.

Connolly has also been dipping his toes in the water of men's professional tennis, playing in many $10,000 tournaments and achieving a best world ranking of 1,336 in April, 2003.

Currently unranked worldwide, the former Yorkshire under-18 champion is a

direct entrant into the main draw.

Last week Connolly lost in the qualifying for the Recin-ata Challenger, losing

4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Italy's Dario Pizzato. Heading the men's field is Lancashire's Simon Roberts, a former winner of the boys' under-18 singles at the Batley Fischer Junior Open.

His main rivals could well be Alex Miotto (Hampshire & the Isle of Wight), Daniel McShane (Nottinghamshire), James Cuthell (Sussex), former Wimbledon boys' quarter-finalist Ken Skupski (Lancashire) and John Lister.

Connolly apart, home club interest will be provided by Jonathan Yip, Martin Mc-Cann, Kyle Brassington and Ryan Royston.

It will also be interesting to see how Heaton's Saad Abbas fares.

The women's singles could well provide a Yorkshire winner as county runner-up Carina Dalton (Sheffield) is the most highly-rated entrant. Avon's Jheni Osman and Cheshire's Samantha Murray are expected to provide her with some stern opposition, however.

Backing up Dalton's White Rose bid will be Yorkshire semi-finalist Rebecca Sowden (Academy at Harrogate), Keighley-based Jennifer Nem-eth (Halifax Queens), Victoria Sharpley (Hull YPI) and Thongsbridge's Alex Cumm-ine.

The tournament is a Tier Two category on the British Tour which means a first prize of £350 for the men and £225 for the women, with the respective runners-up taking home £125 and £75.

The men's and women's singles start on Monday (10am), but the tournament begins tomorrow from 10am with the men's and women's handicap singles and doubles.