Bermuda Open which start this morning.

Michael Way was believed to have pulled out due to injury sustained when playing Davis Cup recently in the Caribbean.

That leaves just Donald Evans and Ricky Mallory to carry the flag for the host nation.

Mallory and Evans both get byes to the second qualifying round, with the former set to take on Brazilian Ricardo Schlachter on centre court.

Mallory's match will be preceded by Evans' clash with American Mike Russell.

Schlachter is ranked 270 and Russell 295. Neither of the Bermudians will be on court before 10.30 a.m, although play starts at 9.00 a.m.

Top seed in the qualifiers Paulo Taicher of Brazil will start things on the show court against Keith Brill of the US. Four players face the daunting task of having to contest three games in two days just to make it to the tournament proper.

They are Australian Andrew Painter, who takes on Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador, and Irakli Labadze of Georgia, who is drawn against Carsten Arriens of Germany. Those matches are the only two in the initial qualifying round. Other familiar names in the weekend's matches include former winner Malivai Washington's brother Mashiska, who went close to knocking out semi-finalist Richey Reneberg after coming through the qualifiers 12 months ago. He'll take on Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

And the popular Marcelo Charpentier of Argentina is back. He'll face the winner of the Arriens/Labadze tie.

Four players in all will come through the weekend's exertions to join the 28 other men in Sunday night's draw for the first round of the main competition.