THERE was British success on a rain-hit opening day of the Fuzion 100 Ilkley Trophy.

Lloyd Glasspool went a long way to justifying his wild card by defeating Australia's Andrew Whittington 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of men's singles qualifying.

Meanwhile, a Briton was guaranteed to come through in the late-evening Centre Court clash between 18-year-old Finn Bass and 23-year-old Billy Harris.

Bass led 4-0 in the opening set in a battle between wild cards, but Manx-based Harris battled back to triumph 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, with his serve seeming to grow stronger the longer the contest went on.

Glasspool will now play another Australian in Akira Santillan, who put out second seed Corentin Moutet of France 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.

Harris was due to face top seed Hubert Hurkacz, but he lost a marathon clash on Court One 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) to fellow Pole Kamil Majchrzak.

However, fourth seed Noah Rubin (United States) did survive, defeating British wild card Jonathan Grey 6-3, 6-3.

In all, 11 matches were completed, with 2017 runner-up Alex Bolt (Australia), seeded sixth, trailing France's Gregoire Barrere 7-6, 4-4 in the only uncompleted match before play was suspended for the day.

The men's qualifying continues today, with Leeds' Luke Johnson, winner of the 2017 Ilkley British tour event, scheduled to play first up at 11am against Japan's Hiroki Moriya on Centre Court.

He will be followed onto court by another British wild card, former semi-finalist Brydan Klein, who faces eighth seed Stefan Kozlov (United States).

Next up on the main show court will be Glasspool against Santillan and Harris against Majchrzak.

The men's prize-money is $150,000, and the $100,000 women's tournament also starts today, with British wild cards Alicia Barnett and Eden Silva scheduled for qualifying action on their show court, Court No 2.

Barnett faces Elena Gabriela Ruse (Romania), seeded seventh, while Silva will meet Ellen Perez (Australia), with Sarah Beth Grey rounding up proceedings on that court by playing second seed Bianca Andrrescu (Canada).

On Court Three, Freya Christie opens up proceedings against Tammi Patterson (Australia), while there will be a late-afternoon all-British clash on Court Four between Ella Taylor and Emily Appleton.