The sporting adage “the luck of the draw” has never had more significance for James Collieson than it did on Saturday at Coral Beach Club.

Scheduled to play Brazilian Marcus Daniel in the qualifying round of the ninth annual XL Capital Bermuda Open tennis tournament, the Island's top player was on the favourable side of fate when his opponent - the only seeded player in the qualifier - was moved into the main draw after Jiri Vanek, the 11th seed, pulled out with a back injury.

Collieson was then declared winner by walkover, earning him a place in the main draw - and some valuable ATP points.

In the wake of protests by other players in the qualifier - some with ATP rankings who paid their way to come here - that the draw should have been redone, the lone Bermudian in the competition was philosophical about what occurred.

“It's just luck of the draw,” said Collieson. “These things happen. I don't think it was any favouritism or bias. It just happened to be me. The same thing could have happened to a player from England or the US. When the situation arose, points had already been played in another match. Once that happens, they have to go with it.

“Maybe if that first match was later they could have redone it (the qualifying fixtures). It was only like five minutes before our match started that they realised someone wasn't coming.

“In fairness to the guys that complained, they have a right to do that. If I was one of them I'd be doing the same thing.”

Tournament director Alec Anderson explained the rules were “very clear” that the qualifying draw could not be redone once it was published.

“There was no big incident. It was really just one player who came from Argentina who ended up playing his best friend. He wanted the draw redone and James' name put back in.

“I can see an ATP Tour player saying ‘This Bermudian guy doesn't have any world-ranking points and I do and it's not fair that he didn't play any matches and is in the main draw, whereas I have to travel 2,000 miles to play my friend',” he said.

Anderson added that one of the Argentinian players was thinking of writing to the ATP Tour to suggest the rules concerning redoing draws be changed.

Asked if he was disappointed not to play on Saturday, Collieson replied with a candid “no, absolutely not”.

“If you get through qualifying you pick up points so, even though I had a walkover, I will get the same number of points I would have if I had won my qualifying match.

“I believe that gives me three points for qualifying and then a point for the main draw so that's four points which is incredible as far as opportunities to get into other tournaments.

“I've been playing some Futures tournaments and what was happening is that because I had one point (gained from last year's XL Open) I was getting in. That was great but I was unlucky to get some bad draws where I was playing top-seeded guys in the qualifier and it was a big disadvantage.

“Now, at least with these four points, that could potentially allow me to get - on paper - a weaker opponent early on and, hopefully, give me a chance to get through some rounds,” said Collieson.

Regarding the XL Open, however, the Bermudian may well have jumped from the fire into the frying pan as he comes up against big-serving American Davis Cup player Taylor Dent today at 6.30 p.m. when main draw action begins on the clay courts.

“I've seen him on TV. He's a big, strong guy with a world-class serve in the 140s (mph). He's up and coming. It's a big opportunity to play him. Next year, he could be among the top 20.

“He is going to win a lot of points on serve. It's a given before I even step out there. It would happen no matter who he plays. He is going to be blasting serves by them. I just have to worry about what I do when I serve. Once I can serve well, stay loose and do something, I'll be happy,” said 25-year-old Collieson.

Without being disrespectful, Dent, meanwhile, said the identity of his opponent was not important.

‘“I think for everybody who has been in situations like that it is just a case of there being another guy on the other side of the court,” he said yesterday after helping out at the annual junior tennis clinic.

“Anything can happen on the day. I just have to go out there and do my best and let the chips fall.”

As Collieson mentioned, Dent said he would be making the most of his big serve.

“It's a pretty dominating shot,” he said, trying his best to sound modest. “I can also scramble pretty good for a big guy and if I can do both of those things well I should be alright.”

The 20-year-old American suffered a serious back injury this year, but believes he has now put that behind him.

“It's totally healed. I haven't had any problems since I got it taken care of,” he said. “My form is pretty good. I had some good preparation with an exhibition tournament in Houston and played a lot of practice sets in Florida before I came over here, so I am feeling good.”

Like Andy Roddick, who played in Bermuda last year, Dent is one of a group of American youngsters aiming to pick up the baton from the likes of countrymen Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

The player, who would like to be in the top 50 by the end of the season, said: “There's Mardy Fish, James Blake, Robbie Ginepri, Andy Roddick - a lot of great young American players.

“It's exciting, hopefully we can become the force we were back in the heyday.”