Jenson Bascome, the Island's top ranked tennis player, and seeded number one in the Argus Open, took less than an hour to successfully open the defence of his title when he defeated Barry Skinner 6-2, 6-0 at the Tennis Stadium yesterday.

Despite the anticipation of the moderate crowd for an action-packed contest, Bascome never allowed his opponent to settle in, keeping him off balance by moving the ball angled across the court and just when the tall power-hitting Skinner appeared to have the range, a deft backhand drop shot was inching across the net for a winner.

When the frustration set in Bascome moved his game up another notch, at one stage winning eight games in a row.

However, despite his superiority Bascome said he was just getting into the 'tournament frame of mind'.

"It took me a while to get used to the flight of the balls because at first they were just flying off the racquet," he said in somewhat of an understatement considering the final result.

While the top seed was on 'cruise control' on Court One, third seed Andy Bray was finding his opponent Brent Smith a challenging adversary. In the end, however, he prevailed in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

Smith was upbeat following his defeat, pleased with the four games gathered.

"I actually got more points staying at the baseline," he said. "Every time I got into a rally with him he was deadly, so in the second set I kept my distance."

The match that held the attention of the spectators, was an earlier contest between the veteran Dennis Harris and 15-year-old John Masters which saw youth prevail in a two-hour thriller 7-5, 7-5.

In the second set Harris must have thought that he was in with a good shot at a third set when he broke Masters in the ninth game for a 5-4 lead, only to be broken himself in the tenth game.

After young Masters held for a 6-5 lead, Harris was serving to stay in the match, but while the strokes were there, the stamina wasn't and he eventually succumbed.

Just the day before Masters was involved in another two-hour marathon before coming from a set down the defeat Sylvian Girard 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.