They went to college together, they practice together and they even play doubles together ? but Justin Gimelstob had no qualms about knocking the number one seed out of the XL Capital Bermuda Open.

In a match that was all baseline and power, top seed Kevin Kim was despatched from the tournament 7-5, 7-6 (4) as punishment by his close friend for one too many careless errors.

The livewire Kim, a semi-finalist here after arriving as a qualifier last year, was the physically stronger of the two players but was unable to break down the dependable Gimelstob, pictured below, in a match featuring just three breaks of serve.

Although the shorter Kim hit more aces than his towering opponent, it was the underdog who was harder to break down, ultimately triumphing in a second set tie-break.

?I just made too many mistakes tonight,? said Kim, who admitted to feeling more pressure than last year now he?s up to 63 in the world.

?I?ve never been that successful against him, I knew it would be tough.

?He got a lot of balls back and I couldn?t break his serve ? I didn?t play so well.

?In the end I paid the penalty.?

When asked how he would cope when the two join forces in tonight?s doubles against number one seeds Rick Leach and Travis Parrott, he replied: ?We are adults. I lost, he won, that is tennis. There are 20 more weeks where I can win.?

The two, who share a career high singles ranking of 63, broke each other in the first set?s opening games before holding through to 6-5 to Gimelstob.

The 28-year-old, who did little to endear himself to the crowd by asking the corporate boxes to ?be quiet? even before the first serve of the evening, then broke Kim to take the opener.

The second was a similarly close affair with saved set points aplenty, five by Kim ? including a recovery from 0-40 at 2-3 ? and two from his opponent.

Gimelstob?s relationship with the crowd then took another turn for the worse at 3-2 after he screamed at a group in the front row to ?shut up? after murmurs of anticipation following a Kim drop shot. There was, however, some sympathy for Gimelstob, who seemed somewhat precious about crowd noise for a professional tennis player, a little later after screaming kids on South Road interrupted his ball toss during yet another set of deuces ? ?that is what you expect here,? he said afterwards.

The second set then inevitably drifted to a tie-break which was to provide the most scintillating tennis of the evening.

Both players made several expeditions to the net, and also pulled some incredible three-quarter court winners out of the bag, as the tension was cranked up a notch.

Gimelstob raced to a 4-1 lead only to be pegged back to 4-4 by three superlative Kim winners.

But Gimelstob then took over the reins with winners of his own to win the set ? and the match ? 7-4.

?I know Kevin well and I have played against him before so I felt I had a chance,? said a rather terse Gimelstob afterwards

.?I?ve not played on clay for two years so I wasn?t sure how it would go, but I felt I moved pretty well.?I am just looking to win some matches and see how I do.?

The 130-ranked player is on his fourth visit to Bermuda, having made the first round, second round and then quarter-final in consecutive years, and how far he gets this time around could be determined today when he takes on fellow American Brian Vahaly.

Former winner of the XL Open Flavio Saretta fared a little better in the last match of the night, despite a dodgy start.

Playing against big Dick Norman, the second tallest player on the professional tour at 6ft 8ins, the 2002 and 2003 winner went down 6-1 before deciding to put his enormous talents to good use.

Although capable of both powerful groundstokes and delicate drops, the Brazilian offered neither against the lanky and angular big-serving Belgian in the opening stanza.

There was an element of tanking from the former world number 44, but Norman made the most of it and finished the set with three straight aces.

But then it was all about Saretta?s brilliance on clay, with the magic returning to give him the second 6-1.

It was more of the same in the final set with the giant Norman finally slain 6-2.