James Collieson's tennis career is at a major crossroads.

Through hard work, persistence and no small amount of good fortune the Bermuda international has found himself at a juncture he can have only dreamed of reaching when he went to bed last Friday night.

In the space of three days he has sailed through qualifying at the XL Capital Bermuda Open without playing a game and found himself a net's breadth away from one of the game's emerging stars.

That he went down 6-2, 6-1 to Taylor Dent in last night's first round action is largely irrelevant. It's what getting this far means that is the important aspect.

By playing on Centre Court, Collieson has reportedly earned himself four ATP points - numerical gold dust in terms of being able to qualify for upcoming events.

“I have to find out for sure but all the guys have been telling me that I have picked up four points,” he said immediately after his exit.

“It sounds too good to be true but if that's the case I would be kind of foolish to sit around and not play.”

What that means, in short, is leaving Bermuda and making the short hop across the Atlantic - for good.

“As far as practising is concerned it's real difficult to have myself based in Bermuda because I just can't get the hours on court that I need,” he said.

“I am not American so as far as income coming in I'd be spending more than I'm making. But I could do some more things tennis-specific regarding training so maybe I need to relocate myself to the States.”

Collieson believes he can't really lose.

“Four points is a gift, so I may as well take advantage of it. It will allow me to get into Futures tournaments and be seeded in qualifying,” he said.

“The last two I went I drew the top seed in the first round. Jumping off a plane and playing the first seed is tough, so hopefully this can at least give me the chance to get some more wins under my belt and really work on what I need to - match play and my mental toughness.”

At 4-0 down in the opening set last night, he needed what mental toughness he had in order to avoid a whitewash.

In the fifth game he dug deep and got himself on the scoreboard thanks to a game-winning serve that Dent was only able to put into Row Z.

Dent held his own serve and Collieson replied in kind before the favourite wrapped up the set in trademark fashion - a blistering ace well in excess of the Island's speed limit.

The second set went the way of the first with Dent rushing into a 4-0 lead before Collieson recovered to force a deuce in the fifth and eventually took the game when the American's return was long.

However, there was to be no thrilling fightback, Dent winning the sixth game without reply and then taking the match after 47 minutes of play with a perfect shot down the line.

“I competed much better than I did last year,” said Collieson, then a first round loser to Cecil Mamiit.

“I had a bit more composure this year and was able to have more of a clear mind in trying to execute what I needed to do. Today that was tough because Taylor was serving really well and that puts a lot of pressure on me to do more on my serve, which isn't really my strength.”

For his part, Dent said it had been more than just a workout. “Anybody that has put in the time to be a professional player you have to respect,” he said.

“Anything can happen out there, you never know.

“I didn't know anything about him, I just wanted to make him play and see what was going on.”

Dent said he had not gone out to wrap up the match quickly.

“I am not really too worried about the fitness aspect but it's always nice to get by the first round, no matter what tournament it is,” he said. “It's just like ‘aghhhh'. I think a lot of guys just look at it like ‘let's do whatever we can to get through the first round and go from there'.”

Collieson will be hoping he has similar thoughts in the near future.