Young tennis star Felix Balshaw has pledged his allegiance to France, despite his father being part of one of England’s greatest sporting triumphs.

Iain Balshaw was capped 35 times in rugby union and played in England’s World Cup final triumph over Australia in 2003.

Felix was born three years later and his memories of watching his father play are from his time at Biarritz on the Basque coast, where the family moved in 2009 and still live.

Now Felix is forging a promising career in a different sport, but it was to his dad’s most famous moment that he turned on the eve of the biggest match of his career on Wednesday.

He said: “I watched some of the highlights. Every time I watch his highlights or the World Cup, I just have a massive smile because I can just say this is my dad.

“I was not born and, watching him play, it’s fantastic. I was always in a little corner in the stands with the rugby gang just watching him with massive eyes. It was very inspirational.

“He’s been very, very important for me because ever since I was little he’s always been my idol.

“He has a lot of experience in rugby so he’s got a lot of stuff to teach me. He’s always been a great part of my life. Always there for me, always behind my back.”

Felix was born in Leeds and the family return to England to visit his grandmothers in Bath and Blackburn, but there appears to be no prospect of a change of flag next to his name any time soon.

“I grew up in France and each day that went by I felt more and more French,” said Felix, who even admitted he supports France in rugby.

“I’m fully committed to France. I’ve always had the French flag and I think I’ll just stick with it.”

There has been no pushing from Balshaw Sr for Felix to follow in his footsteps, with the 20-year-old adding of his parents: “It’s a conversation to have, but I think for them the most important thing is, if I’m happy, they’ll be happy as well.

“Maybe in the future there’ll be conversations, but for now I’m sticking to France.”

Felix is the reverse of British number one Arthur Fery, who was born in France to French parents but raised in London, while he is happy to embrace comparisons with another Leeds-born sporting star.

“Compare me to Haaland, it’s great,” he said of Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland.

Ears at the Lawn Tennis Association will surely prick up, with Felix so far receiving little support from the French tennis federation, who boast 21 men in the top 200 compared with seven from Britain.

He would have been barely on the FFT’s radar until this season, when a rapid ascent has seen him soar from 718 in the rankings at the start of the year to 186 now.

This week he won his first ATP Tour match on home soil in Lyon before losing an entertaining encounter with French showman Corentin Moutet.

He is hoping to get an opportunity to play in a first Masters 1000 in Paris next month, while he is on course to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals for the best eight players of the year aged 21 and under.

Felix possesses typical flair of players from his adopted country, including a one-handed backhand that he switched to at the age of eight inspired by his tennis hero Roger Federer.

He grew up playing a number of different sports and at the age of 13 had to choose between tennis and his father’s sport.

“When your father is a rugby champion, you always want to follow his steps and do the same journey as him, but I just felt rugby was not going to be my sport,” he said.

“In tennis, yes it’s more difficult because it’s an individual sport, but there was a little fire in me that it was the right choice.”