Davies and Childs into finals

Victoria Davis is ranked 599th in the world

Unseeded Victoria Davies made her first ever national final at the expense of highly-rated teenager Anne Keothavong on Friday.

Another to taste success at the National Championships in Bolton was men's defending champion Lee Childs, who reached the final again with a 6-4 6-3 win over third seed Barry Cowan.

Davies, from Wales, took her semi-final 6-3 2-6 6-4 and then revealed that she never expected to do so well.

"When I arrived here I had no expectations in the singles because my results have not been great recently," she admitted.

The top players would hit through her - I did that at times but not with enough consistency

Anne Keothavong

"But I have been playing well in practice and against Anne I was mixing up the pace and slicing the backhand."

Promising Keothavong, 18, was seeded six and went into the match 192 places above her opponent, who inhabitated a lowly 599th spot.

Yet the younger woman made a string of mistakes in the first set and Davies took full advantage.

In the second set Keothavong improved, winning 6-2 to level.

But Davies converted her first break point of third set to seal the match when Keothavong mishit a backhand.

The younger woman admitted she fell for Davies' tactics.

Keothavong could not come to terms with Davis

"At some times I felt I was playing one of the old ladies down at the club who slice everything - I just got sucked into it," Keothavong said.

"I do not think I am going to come across too many players like her.

"The top players would hit through her - I did that at times but not with enough consistency."

Keothavong became the second promising youngster to lose to Davies in this competition - Elena Baltacha was the first.

Childs, the 19-year-old sixth seed, said he had improved since last year's victory in the National Championships.

"I feel as though I'm a better player than 12 months ago," he said after his straight sets defeat of Cowan, who took Pete Sampras to a deciding set at Wimbledon.

Lee Childs is through to the final

Childs will face either Arvind Parmar or Alex Bogdanovic in the final.

He added: "I played solid tennis today and was really focused.

"I'm thinking a lot better on court about what I have to do.

"Barry didn't serve too well or perform as well as he can but I understand he has been feeling a bit under the weather this week."

Cowan, who has not felt 100% all week, never produced his best tennis.

He was broken once in the first set and again in the second after commiting three double faults.

Cowan did break back but was immediately broken again as Childs wrapped up the victory.