JOSHUA GOODALL, the highest surviving world-ranked British player, has reached the second round of the Caversham ATP Men’s Challenger singles – where he is due to face fellow Brit Alexander Slabinsky.

Goodall produced some excellent tennis at Les Ormes yesterday to defeat Frenchman Gary Lugassy in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The world no. 212 took the first set comfortably, yet made hard work of the second – the set went with serve to four games each, before Lugassy broke Goodall’s serve in the ninth game and went on to serve for the set. The third set again went with serve, until Goodall broke Lugassy’s serve twice to take the match.

The 23-year-old said he was pleased with his game, adding that a break on Tuesday after travelling to the Island on Monday had boosted his form. Goodall is due to play Slabinsky at 12 pm today, with his opponent having won his singles match against Australia’s Joseph Sirianni on Tuesday, and a doubles match yesterday with Great Britain’s Neil Bamford against the Dutch and Spanish pairing of Michel Koning and Adrian Menendez.

The big match today will undoubtedly be the tie between Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty, battling to regain a top 20 place after injury, and Germany’s Andreas Beck, the No 2 tournament seed. The match starts some time after 4 pm.