There was plenty of his usual determination and he was certainly far from outclassed, but Andy Bray’s annual foray into professional tennis still lasted for barely over an hour on Saturday as he lost 6-4, 6-2 to American Justin Nadale in the first round of XL Bermuda Open qualifying.

Cheered on by his new fiancée Susie Mills as well as a few dozen friends and work colleagues, the English accountant took to a sun-drenched Centre Court at Coral Beach seeking to emulate his performance of last year when, in exactly the same setting, he beat the unranked and unknown Wkwesi Williams of Barbados in straight sets to set up a clash with former French Open quarter-finalist Michael Russell.

Before the game even began the talk was that last year’s local Grand Slam winner had a genuine chance of advancing yet again, with his 25-year-old opponent boasting a world ranking in excess of 1,000.

And having been busy preparing for this summer’s Small Island Games campaign for the last few weeks with the rest of the national squad, Bray was, by his own admission, in much better shape than by this time last year.

Yet from the very first game it was obvious that the six-foot-two, black-haired Nadale was no Wkwesi Williams and that Bermuda’s sole representative in the tournament was going to have to play out of his skin to emerge victorious.

The match remained on serve in the first set until the score got 2-2 when a couple of tentative backhands — the latter a relatively simple volley — produced unforced errors and cost Bray his first service game.

And while it was clear the Island number one could more than compete with Nadale off the ground, it was the American’s consistent, high-kicking serve which would prove the hardest nut to crack — with Bray unable to fashion a break point at any stage.

At 5-4 down in the first though, Bray did have a glimmer of hope on Nadale’s serve when he moved into a 30-15 lead.

But a clear net-cord on the very next point was not picked up by the chair umpire, and when Bray’s subsequent return sailed long, what had been an evenly-contested set was then all-but over.

The second followed more or less the same pattern, with Bray producing a few crowd-pleasing winners off both forehand and backhand but in general struggling to hold on to his serve while Nadale comfortably held his — a trend that quickly saw the pro move into a 5-1 lead as the pressure began to tell.

Bray won his next service game to keep the match alive for a few more minutes, but with Nadale continuing to land a high percentage of first serves and target Bray’s weaker backhand side, the writing was well and truly on the wall.

“I really enjoyed that,” Bray said afterwards.

“I thought I played quite well actually at times, though if you were being honest you could say I didn’t quite capitalise on the few opportunities I had to put him under some decent pressure, particularly in the first set.

“But at the end of the day, the boy was a very decent player and although I didn’t feel out of my depth against him by any means, he just had a little bit more than me in all departments.

“He had a pretty good serve as well and while I had to fight like hell to hold on to mine, I just couldn’t make the impression on his serve that I would have liked.

“I had a few chances which I wasn’t able to take as well, but I suppose when you’re under pressure that sort of thing can happen.

“But still, it was a great experience once again and I’m grateful to all the people who came down to support me - including my fiancée Susie, who thankfully said yes when I asked her to marry me on Good Friday!”

Bray’s playing involvement in the XL is not over, however, as it emerged yesterday that tournament director Alec Anderson has given him a wildcard into the first round of the doubles, where he will play with the Israeli Dekel Valtzer starting at 3.30 this afternoon.