Argentinian friends and rivals Hernan Gumy and Lucas Arnold are set to meet again in the Bermuda Open quarter-finals after the draw for the tournament proper was made yesterday afternoon.

The pair, who came up through the same junior programme in their home city of Buenos Aires, contested what was readily agreed to be the best Open final in its five year history 12 months ago, with Gumy finally triumphing in the third set.

Both are in the bottom half of the draw with Arnold seeded five and Gumy three.

Arnold plays today, but is somewhat surprisingly relegated to court seven where he'll open proceedings with a battle against Razvan Sabau of Romania.

Gumy himself won't set out on the defence of his title until tomorrow, when he has an interesting tie with Patrick Rafter's doubles partner Paul Kilderry, who won a wild card to the singles tournament.

On paper, Gumy should win easily, although he failed to maintain the momentum of his victory last year and finds himself still ranked in the middle 90s.

By contrast, Western Australian Kilderry, who celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday, is currently ranked 1,107.

Kilderry's singles earnings of a little over $6,000 tell their own story when compared with doubles winnings approaching $500,000.

Number one seed this year is wild card Nicolas Lapentti.

Ecuadorian Lapentti, whose number 44 ranking in the world comes mainly on the back of a remarkable performance at the Australian Open, where he reached the semi-finals before losing to Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, will take on Sweden's Fredrik Jonsson in the second match of the day on the show court.

The first match will see fourth seed Guillermo Canas, another Argentinian, against Germany's Marcello Craca.

Craca reached the quarter-finals in Orlando a year ago, beating the USA's Jan-Michael Gambill on the way.

Seeded two seed this year is Stefan Koubek of Austria, who will be on tonight's bill on centre court against Tomas Zib of the Czech Republic. Their match will be preceded by a tie involving two Bermuda Open veterans, Alex O'Brien of the US and Karsten Braasch of Germany.

The remaining three seeds, Belgium's Johan Van Herck, winner two years ago, Marcello Filippini of Uruguay, and Finland's number one Ville Liukko, will begin their challenges later in the week.

Number six seed Van Herck will play Thomas Larsen of Denmark, while Filippini, who yesterday was contesting the final of a Challenger event in Naples, Italy, is matched with Dirk Dier of Germany. Liukko has an opening round tie with Attila Savolt of Hungary.

Richey Reneberg, number two seed dumped out of the competition at the semi-finals stage by Arnold last year, is unseeded this time, but takes on qualifier Mariano Hood, also of Argentina, in the first round.

More Open tennis, see Page 27.

BERMUDA OPEN AT A GLANCE Weekend qualifying results and today's schedule in the main event: Singles First qualifying round Irakli Labadze, Georgia, d Carsten Arriens, Germany, 6-1, 6-4 Paulo Taicher, Brazil, d Keith Brill, US, 6-4, 6-1 Mike Russell, US, d Donald Evans, Bermuda , 6-0, 6-2 Rodolphe Cadart, France, d Mark Merklein, US, 6-1, 6-2 Mariano Hood, Argentina, d Mashiska Washington, US, 6-3, 6-4 Max Mrnyi, Belarus, d Andrew Painter, Australia, 6-1, 6-3 Marcelo Charpentier, Argentina, d Irakli Labadze, Georgia, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 Raemon Sluiter, Netherlands, d Brandon Coupe, US, 6-3, 6-1 Ricardo Schlachter, Brazil, d Ricky Mallory, Bermuda , 6-1, 6-3 Second qualifying round Paulo Taicher, Brazil, d Mike Russell, US, 7-5, 6-1 Mariano Hood, Argentina d Rodolphe Cadart, France, 6-0, 6-2 Max Mirnyi, Belarus, d Marcelo Charpentier, Argentina, 5-7, 6-1, 4-0, retired Ricardo Schlachter, Brazil, d Raemon Sluiter, Netherlands, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 Doubles Qualifying round Irakli Labadze, Georgia, and Christophe Rochus, Belgium, d Donald Evans and Ricky Mallory, Bermuda , 6-3, 6-2 TODAY'S SCHEDULE Centre Court, 11.00 a.m.

Guillermo Canas, Argentina, v Marcelo Craca, Germany Nicolas Lapentti, Ecuador, v Fredrik Jonsson, Sweden Paulo Taicher, Brazil, v Jared Palmer, US Evening programme, 6.30 p.m.

Alex O'Brien, US, v Karsten Braasch, Germany Tomas Zib, Czech Republic, v Stefan Koubek, Austria Court Seven, 11.00 a.m.

Lucas Arnold, Argentina, v Razvan Sabau, Romania Ricardo Schlachter, Brazil, v Tomas Behrend, Germany Ali Hamadeh/Raemon Sluiter v Andrew Painter/Maurice Ruah Court Five, 12 noon George Bastle, Switzerland, v Max Mirnyi, Belarus Alejandro Hernandez/Christiano Testa v Brandon Coupe/Mark Merklein