Craig Brand, the energetic lefthander, is expected to call upon all of his energy and ability during the semi-final of the 70th Bermuda Lawn Tennis Club Invitational when he faces top seed, and nationally ranked Tom Oliphant at Coral Beach this morning.

Pennsylvanian Brand earned his berth in today's round with a surprisingly comfortable 6-1, 6-0 victory over the competition's fourth seeded Fred Wells in the quarter-finals, while his Montgomery, Alabama opponent, breezed past Mike Cunningham 6-1, 6-1.

In the other semi-final second seed Ron Groff will take on Ted Hoehn in what could turn out to be the match of the day.

Hoehn was taken to the brink of exhaustion by the wily local veteran Vernal Davis yesterday before edging through with a tough 6-2, 6-4 victory, but not before Davis game him a battle for his merits in that second set.

During the early going Hoehn realised that his drop shot, from both sides of the court, was working and he had Davis trying to find other areas of his body in which to breath air as he was quickly running out of steam, while Hoehn's drop shots were getting shorter and shorter.

However, it took him 38 minutes to take the first set.

The second set was a different story. Davis opened by holding at 15, then for the first time in the match, broke Hoehn at 30 to take the early advantage.

That did not last too long because Hoehn bounced back to break Davis, then held to level the set and put everything back on serve.

The match changed in the seventh game when Hoehn broke for a 4-3 advantage after Davis held five game points.

When he lost that game, to all intents and purposes that was the match because he never recovered as Hoehn won the eighth game for a 5-3 lead. While Davis held up the victory, by winning the ninth game, he was unable to stop it all together.

Meanwhile Janet Green pulled off what she considered to be a 'big' upset, especially since it involved ladies singles, when she outduelled Julie Lunn in a two hour marathon, winning 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

"For me, that was my final," exclaimed Green when it was all over. "I never thought that I would be able to beat her.

"It was a great match and I was very pleased with the outcome," she said in what was easily the understatement of the tournament.

The week's first final will be played today when top seed Irmgard Fishbacher take on the veteran Maureen O'Berg in the Ladies 45 singles even starting at 10.30 a.m.

In another interesting contest featuring well known veterans of the sport, the over 70s Dick Mount will take on the over 70s Allan Simmons, while later in the afternoon the Men's Doubles 55 finals will take place.

The tournament continues through to Saturday.