At age 30 time is ticking away for Michael Chang.

But the player, who as a 17-year-old set the world alight with victory at the French Open, did his utmost to turn back the clock on Centre Court last night.

Though he crashed out at the first hurdle of this year's XL Capital Bermuda Open to Eric Taino (6-1, 2-6, 6-1) the American went down fighting.

A winner for the first time this year at Calabasas in California last week, Chang came into the tournament with his confidence boosted.

But a 6-1 reverse in the first set to the 27-year-old New Jersey native could have been enough to crush that new-found belief underfoot.

That he made a match of it in the second owed much to the desire that still burns in his belly.

Taino had had him running all over the court in the opening exchanges but Chang turned the tables in the next, never looking back after drawing level at 2-2.

Every point won was celebrated with a clenched fist or a rallying call and thoughts of a come-from-behind victory began to emerge when he claimed the set 6-2.

But those observing Taino closely might have noticed how he appeared to be resigned to Chang levelling, in order to save himself for the decider.

The plan was put into action as soon as the decider got underway, Taino not allowing Chang to get on the scoreboard until the sixth game.

With some fine returns allied to some punishing serves, Taino showed no mercy to his elder rival, claiming the set 6-1 and with it the match.

"Obviously it is disappointing," Chang said afterwards. "I know Bermuda is a beautiful place and I would have loved to have been able to have come and played my best tennis.

"Tonight I tried to play the best I could, and played a good second set, but the first and second just weren't quite there."

Chang had praise for his opponent.

"Eric played some good tennis too," he said. "He was hitting his backhand very well and didn't miss a whole lot of shots. He was definitely playing well."

Chang said the fact he had had to fly in from California was of no real consequence.

"I don't have any excuses. I was trying to make what ever changes I could make as quickly as I possibly could. I got in about 5 p.m. last night and jumped straight on the clay," he said.

"I just haven't quite made the adjustment. To go from a hard court you can't expect to come out and play your best tennis two days later on clay.

"It's disappointing but now I'll have a little bit of an opportunity to enjoy Bermuda. I'll do that, relax a little bit, practice and have some fun."

After racing into a one-set lead, Taino said he handed the second to Chang almost as much as the latter had won it.

"I was just expecting a lot more from him. I was just thinking and over-playing shots and expecting him to do more than he was doing today," he said.

"I got down one break and then just played a sloppy game mentally and I just sort of, not gave up the set, but realised it was going to be a long way and that I might as well save it up and try and get some composure for the third set."

The decider was pretty much a no-contest.

"I played a better set than him in the first and he played a better set than me in the second. There was a lot of errors both ways and I thought that whoever picked it up in the third would win the match," Taino said.

Earlier, crowd favourite and former XL winner Andrew Ilie swept aside Paul Goldstein in two sets, 6-3, 6-1.

"The conditions were quite difficult," said Ilie, referring to the torrential rain of earlier in the day. "It was a bit heavy and the balls were a bit different to the last time I played here.

"But it was okay and I played good and hopefully I can keep it going."