After qualifying for the Aegon Manchester Trophy quarterfinals, British wildcard Joshua Milton has claimed that his best weapon out on court is an unwavering belief in himself.
Milton, who won the ATP Futures tournament at The Northern Lawn Tennis Club last year, defeated Japan’s Hiroki Moriya 3-6 6-1 6-1 to book his place in the last eight.
He will now go on to face Rajeev Ram of the USA who is ranked over 200 places higher than him, but the 25-year-old insists he will not accept being the underdog.
He said: “I knew it was possible to make the quarterfinals as I’ve made the quarterfinals in Challengers before so I know that I had the ability to do it.
“In the past I would’ve been a bit more disappointed after losing the first set than I was today, I stayed calmer and got on with it and played well as a result.
“I played Ram the year before last and won. He’s a very good player and a much higher ranking than me, but I know I’ve beaten him before and I’ve got the belief to win.”
It took a while for Milton to settle down in the match and he has blamed his loss of the first set on his serve not being strong enough while he tried to work out his opponent’s style.
But things rapidly altered for him from there on out and he now feels that if he can get his serve right and remain aggressive, he will see himself into the semi-finals.
“I started the match not serving as well as I can and I think it took me about a set to get used to my opponent’s style and then I felt like I just upped my game and ran away with it.
“My serve is important and as soon as the second set started I decided to be a bit more aggressive and concentrate on my serve a bit more.
“He has a very good serve, so I’ve got to try my best to neutralise that. If my serve is in place as well I can have a much better match. “
Elsewhere in the tournament another Brit Brydan Klein has made it through to the quarterfinals after defeating number one seed Marcos Baghdatis over three sets 6-3 6-7 7-6.
Main image courtesy of BritishTennisHowTo via YouTube, with thanks.
