David Rice and Sean Thornley qualify for Wimbledon

David Rice and Sean Thornley qualified for Wimbledon at the first attempt after battling through a tough three-set match on the penultimate day at the Bank of England Sports Club.

The British duo had never entered qualifying for the All England Club event before but will now line up at a Grand Slam for the first time next week after defeating Italy’s Alessandro Motti and Stephane Robert from France 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

The pairing started the match with form behind them following their first round win over sixth seeds Brian Battistone and Purav Raja on Monday evening.

British number 17 Thornley said: “It’ll be our first Wimbledon so we are pretty excited. We played two really good matches and we are absolutely chuffed to be going through to the first round.”

Rice added: “We have been working towards this for the past year and we have just beaten two good players. It’s really come together and we can’t wait until next week now.”

Mel South’s Wimbledon ambitions were dashed at the second round stage as she slipped to a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Japan’s Misaki Doi.

South, ranked at 293 in the world, started brightly against Doi, racing to a 4-0 lead in the first set. But the world number 133 found her feet to snatch the first set and go on to claim the victory.

In the ladies doubles there was disappointment for the British pairing of Sam Murray and Jade Windley who lost 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 to Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Jessica Moore.

Anna Fitzpartick and Katie O’Brien also exited 6-3, 6-3 to Russian duo Nina Bratchikova and Valeria Savinykh.

Meanwhile the seedings for the Wimbledon main draw were announced on Wednesday with Britain's Andy Murray lining up as the fourth seed.