British teenager Hannah Klugman through to the second round at the Lexus Wrexham Open

Hannah Klugman delighted British tennis fans in Wrexham after her defiant win over America's Fiona Crawley in the first round. Klugman, just 17 years old, showed her composure and consistency in her 6-2, 6-2, victory.

“It was a really good match, I'm really pleased” Klugman said, “I started really well and I think her game really suited mine, I had some time to build the points but it definitely was closer than the scoreline, it was a great first match to win”

Crawley is ranked 209 in the world, 132 places above Klugman. “There's obviously nothing to lose [when playing a higher ranked player] but there's also the inner belief that I can compete with these players and I've had results against higher ranked players so I know my level is there it's just having that belief”.

Klugman previously had success at this tournament the year before it moved to Wrexham in 2024. She reached the quarterfinals of the W100 in Shrewsbury and in doing so broke Coco Gauff's record as the youngest player to qualify for a tournament of that level at just 14 years of age. It may be her first time playing here in Wrexham and she's enjoying the conditions.

“It's always special playing in Britain, you have the crowd on your side and for a tournament like this there's a great crowd”

Later on, top seed Anna Blinkova needed an impressive second set comeback to secure her win over Lithuainia's Andre Lukosiute. The French world number 72 took the first set 6-4, after several breaks of serve. Lukosuite took a comfortable lead 5-1 in the second set and a third set seemed almost guaranteed. However, Blinkova forced a comeback to get the set to a tiebreak. She won the tiebreak 7-0 for a straight sets victory over the world number 523 who came through two rounds of qualifying.

After the match, Blinkova commented “I'm feeling very good and proud of this week. For me, the match was very good from both of us.”

“In the first set I was down because she was dominating, but I managed to force her to make more errors and I kept a very positive mindset which helped me to stay confident and believing in myself that I can win in the end.”

When talking about her comeback, Blinkova said, “I decided I had to be as aggressive as I can, taking more risks, maybe making more mistakes but I had to dictate the game and be the leader on the court. I'm really proud that I managed to turn the match and I played my best tennis in the tiebreak.”

Wildcard, Daniella Britton, who lit up the Carden Park Arena last night in the One Point Grand, didn't have the same success today after a tightly fought battle with Australia's Lizette Cabrera. The three-set thriller was decided with a final set tiebreak where Cabrera's match experience, helped her over the line 6-4, 2-6, 7-6.

Britton will return to court tomorrow to make up the all British teenage pairing with Hannah Klugman and hope to avenge today's loss as the teenagers have drawn Cabrera and Suzan Lamens in the first round of the doubles.

Tickets to watch the second half of first round matches are available to buy on the Lexus Wrexham Open website. Matches start at 10am on courts 5 and 6 and 10:30am on Centre Court.

Ticket prices are £19 and £14 for Under 16s.

The end of Wednesday will conclude all the first round matches and several more Brits will be in action. This includes Jodie Burrage who has recently represented Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup, and Alicia Dudeney who won a W35 in Birmingham last week.