Billy Harris’ run at the LTA’s Lexus Surbiton Trophy came to an end in the semi-finals but he is set for a career-best ranking.

The 29-year-old from the Isle of Man reached the semi-finals of a 125 event for the first time in his career, losing out to namesake Lloyd Harris, a former Grand Slam quarter-finalist, 6-4 6-4 in the last four.

That denied him a place in the final at Surbiton, and while Harris was understandably disappointed, he was still satisfied with his overall performance in the tournament.

He said: “The key was that he served very well so there wasn’t much rhythm in the match and when I did get into the points, I made too many errors. He served very well though, so credit to him.

“I am feeling pretty good, it wasn’t as good as in the quarter-final. But I’ll take the positives from the wins I’ve had and onto the next one.

“This will probably move me to a career high. It’s been a good week, I lost here in qualifying last year and it’s always a strong tournament so I have got to be happy with a semi-final, even though I lost it.”

Next up for Harris will be a trip to Nottingham for the LTA’s Rothesay Open, while he could then compete in Ilkley the week after that.

And having gone all the way to the semi-finals in his first outing on the grass this season, Harris is optimistic that he can perform even better on the surface in the coming weeks.

He added: “Serve and return is obviously very important on grass so I just need to continue to try to play a bit more grass court tennis instead of coming off the clay and trying to stay in long rallies.”

For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website