excruciating heat to reach the semi-finals of a high-level tournament in Florida.

His excellent showing at the US tennis Association tournament in Boca Raton, Florida, has left the Island's Davis Cup number one player to pursue his dream of pro circuit tennis with renewed vigour.

Collieson opened by winning a gruelling, three-hour marathon in the midday sun against Tim Kucera, a professional who plays on the ATP Satellite Tour.

The 23-year-old triumphed 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 in temperatures in the low 90s and energy-sapping 80-plus percent humidity.

The tight schedule of the two-day tournament meant Collieson had only 90 minutes to rest, cool down and rehydrate before returning to the court for his second-round match against Miami-based Spaniard Jose Ospina, another full-time pro.

But Collieson showed no signs of fatigue as he won the first set 6-1 before thunderstorms forced an early halt to the day's play.

The match resumed at 8 a.m. the following morning and Collieson picked up where he left off to win the second set 6-2.

Later the same day, Collieson was ousted in a three-set semi-final, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 by Germany's Josef Fischer, another full-time player who finished last year with a top 300 International Tennis Federation junior ranking.

Collieson, who plays collegiate tennis for the University of North Carolina, was pleased with his efforts and felt he needed more similar tournaments to make futher progress.

"Some of the players there play 60 to 70 competitive matches per year,'' said Collieson. "In school, I am playing about 20 matches and outside of school, maybe five or six -- and that's way down on what I need to be doing. I need to play more tournaments like this, but it all comes down to funding. Even playing a week in Florida, which is relatively close, can cost around $1,000, without the plane ticket.'' Reaching the last four in Boca Raton will earn Collieson some Florida state ranking points, but to be eligible for them he needs to play two more tournaments in the Sunshine State, a hotbed of US tennis.

"That would give me a Florida ranking and would help me get into Satellite Tour events in the future,'' added Collieson. His first match in Boca Raton had been a battle of endurance, he said.

"We started the match at 12 noon and the heat was pretty unbearable,'' he said. "Before I was drinking and drinking as much as I could.

"He (Kucera) is 19 years-old and training full time. We were fairly evenly matched and I sneaked the first set 7-6, then relaxed and let him back into it, but I got my second wind in the third and quickly got 5-1 up. In the end, I think I had more energy than him.

His next opponent Ospina had been "a little weaker'', added Collieson. And the Bermudian had been disappointed to lose to Fischer.

"I actually thought I was a little stronger than him (Fischer), but I think the difference was that he had come through two fairly comfortable matches while my first match had probably taken more out of me than I realised.'' Collieson will return to his school in Wilmington in January and finishes next May.

James Collieson: semi-finalist.