Anna Fitzpatrick demonstrated true Yorkshire grit to become the first British girl to reach the semi-finals of junior Wimbledon for six years.

The 18-year-old from Sheffield, who trains in Monte Carlo, defeated Gail Brodsky, of the United States, 6-2 7-5 to reach the last four to surpass the feat of Kent's Naomi Cavaday who got as far as the quarter-finals last year.

Fitzpatrick has become Britain's first semi-finalist since Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong in 2001 and is aiming to emulate Annabel Croft, who was Britain's last Wimbledon junior champion in 1984.

She overcame a hesitant start in which she had to save three break points in her opening service game and wrapped up the first set in just 31 minutes.

She dropped her serve in the fifth game of the second set but fought back to level and, after squandering a match point in the 10th game, broke her American opponent for a second time to seal the victory.

Fitzpatrick, who knocked fourth seed Ksenia Milevskaya, of Belarus, in the second round, had earlier in the day maintained her composure to pull off a 6-2 0-6 10-8 win over 13th seeded Russian Ksenia Lykina.

The Russian halted play for quarter-of-an-hour after the first set to have treatment for a shoulder injury and remarkably cruised through the second set before the British girl prevailed in a champions' tie-break introduced because of the rain delays.

Fitzpatrick, who is also playing junior doubles, has not been surprised by her success, although she was taken aback after discovering her busy schedule.

"I didn't realise this morning that I was going to have to play twice today but, when I found out, I was quite relaxed about it and I was prepared," she said.

"I knew I could get a long way in the tournament so it's not a huge surprise to me.

"But I'm taking it one game at a time and, if I win tomorrow, then I can starting thinking of the final."

Fitzpatrick, who receives funding from the LTA, trained at Leeds academy until moving to the Monte Carlo last year and spends seven weeks a year in Monaco, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Justine Henin and Novak Djokovic.

"Training there is really good," she said. "Top-10 players train there and so there's a good atmosphere and it's a great experience."

Fitzpatrick's semi-final opponent will be Urszula Radwanska, of Poland, who pulled off a surprise 7-5 6-1 win over Russian top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Britain's two last remaining hopes in the boys' singles both experienced third-round exits.

Scot Graeme Dyce lost 7-6 6-2 to Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis while Marcus Willis, from Berkshire, was beaten 7-6 7-6 on his major tournament debut by Gastao Ministro Elias, of Portugal.