James Collieson made the best of the worst possible draw, doing himself and Bermuda proud in the XL Capital Bermuda Open qualifiers.

Fate had bizarrely ? and anti-climactically ? thrown both he and fellow local wildcard Andy Bray together in the first of three qualifying rounds ahead of today?s main draw.

And, disappointingly for the crowd and the eventual loser Bray in particular, the match reflected both players? frustration at the draw, Collieson winning the flat and uninspired 90-minute contest 6-4, 6-4.

But three-and-a-half hours later, the Davis Cup number one made the most of his next opportunity taking seven games off Serb eccentric Dusan Vemic.

Collieson, barely able to stand after more than 150 minutes spent playing in the Coral Beach humidity, put in a brave and inspired performance against the bearded, ponytailed world number 255.

Vemic, whose style over substance brand of tennis nearly cost him the second set, was clearly the more talented player but made too many errors and was not nearly positive enough to really punish the local.

Collieson raised his game appropriately from the ?pathetic? level of the morning session and began hitting the shots the partisan crowd all knew he was capable of.

Vemic kept his edge with his fantastic touch play, the ball even spinning back over to his side of the net after one particularly cutting stop volley, leaving Collieson shattered but proud.

?I think I did myself justice,? said Collieson, who saved three set points at 5-2 in the first.

?It was a much improved game than the one against Andy in the morning, I played a hell of a lot better.

?He is an interesting guy to play against with all his touch shots and I think he wasted a lot of balls.

?But, yeah, I think I can walk away from that proudly.

?I just wish I could play guys of his level more often, training is hard here ? there is no substitute for hitting tennis balls.

?I haven?t played in matches with scoring since November and it showed by the end ? I was really cramping up out there.

?But I can walk away proud of myself and feeling invigorated about tennis again.?

Bray, who faithfully watched his training partner take on the Serbian, is probably not feeling invigorated about the sport at the moment after his morning defeat to the Bermudian.

After three weeks of training with doubles partner Collieson he then had to face him ? and not an interesting foreigner as he had hoped.

Both players were disappointed with the draw ? and the quality of play reflected that.

?I just felt flat,? said Bray, who wore a glum look for the rest of the day after his uninspired XL debut.

?It wasn?t a great game of tennis from either of us. It was just a bit of anti-climax for me. I had been training for three weeks against James for my match and then I have to play against him ? I just couldn?t raise my game.

?I don?t really know what else to say, it is just a real shame. I knew I was going to lose, but then to play James ? a game I could win ? and then lose, that is really disappointing.

?I?m not sure why I didn?t play better, but then James didn?t either.?

Just when his weekend his couldn?t get any worse, the Englishman nearly missed his doubles qualifier yesterday after getting a speeding ticket on his bike.

The Police eventually let him go and he arrived a few minutes later, narrowly avoiding a default.

The rush was worthwhile as he and Collieson played well in a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Vemic and young Canadian Frank Dancevic.

The doubles game, a chance to finally put his training to good use, did cheer Bray up a little ? although his highlight of the weekend was ?signing autographs for the little kids?.