resurrect his tennis career yesterday, qualifying on Easter Sunday for his sixth tournament of the year with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory over hot-tempered Xavier Daufresne of Belgium at Coral Beach and Tennis Club.

Joining Thorne as qualifiers in the main singles draw of the XL Bermuda Open, which begins today, were fellow Americans Alex O'Brien, Wade McGuire and Lou Gloria along with Brazil's Marcio Carlsson.

Today's opening day line-up features 12 matches on three separate courts at the Paget Club.

Gloria -- beaten by O'Brien 6-2, 7-6 (11-9) -- gained admission into the coveted draw of 32 players when Belgium's Filip Dewulf was forced to withdraw from the tournament after suffering a sprained ankle. Gloria, whose 26th birthday was on Saturday, received a late gift since he had the best ranking (199) of the four players to lose their matches yesterday.

Carlsson, ranked 310th on the tour, made his first-ever attempt at qualifying a successful one with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Alex Antonitsch of Austria.

Now the hard part begins for all five players.

In first round matches Carlsson will face reigning NCAA singles champ Mark Merklein of the US; O'Brien meets Swede Lars Jonsson; McGuire will lock horns with Argentina's Javier Frana and Gloria will play the tournament's number two seed, Jason Stoltenberg of Australia.

Thorne faces an even more difficult challenge when he meets Todd Martin, the Open's top seed tonight (6.30).

Thorne, 31, began the day at an Easter sunrise service at Elbow Beach and following a brief nap continued his amazing qualifying run by stretching his record to 17-0 in six tour events. In Bermuda he defeated Rob Weiss of the US and Gaston Etlis of Argentina prior to his victory over Daufresne.

"I've just been cutting down on a lot of the unforced errors and I've been getting a lot of lucky breaks,'' said a smiling Thorne afterwards. "The first two matches I had here were very tight and you've got to get lucky and you've got to play pretty well.

"But I need to win a lot more matches and I've won only one match or so in the main draw. Physically it takes a lot out of you going through the qualifying and I've struggled with that a little bit.'' When told that he would be facing Martin in the first round, Thorne said matter-of-factly: "Obviously Todd's a great player but I'm thinking of the old cliche that it kind of doesn't matter. I've just got to concentrate on myself.'' The carrot-topped McGuire, ranked at 163 and a two-time NCAA finalist from the University of Georgia, watched Connell's game fold in much the same way as he carefully folds his towels on the back of his courtside chair.

McGuire, playing in his fourth tournament of the year, represents another comeback story of sorts, having rebounded from a back injury.

"I'm just glad to be playing again,'' he said. "I'm excited just to be out here and not really worried about winning and losing too much.

"I feel a little bit more comfortable on the green clay because it's what I grew up playing on. (Grant) is a good player and I know this isn't his favourite surface. He didn't play nearly as well as he can play today. It was windy...pretty gusty and I think that might have had something to do with it.'' Daufresne's misery was compounded by a problem on the south end of centre court where a hole behind the baseline seemed to punch a hole in his confidence.

He did, however, jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, the match moving almost as quickly as John and Christopher Wardman, the ball and towel boys on the court. But Thorne soon found his groove and Daufresne appeared to throw in the towel.

First round singles: Todd Martin v Kenny Thorne; Hernan Gumy v Michael Tebbutt; Alejo Mancisidor v Bryan Shelton; Bohdan Ulihrach v Christian Ruud; Brett Steven v Mauricio Hadad; Lars Jonsson v Alex O'Brien; David Witt v Jamie Morgan; Radomir Vasek v Fernando Meligeni; Vince Spadea v Stefano Pescosolido; Mats Wilander v Christian Bergstrom; Marcio Carlsson v Mark Merklein; Karsten Braasch v Martin Sinner; Patrick McEnroe v Karim Alami; Wade McGuire v Javier Frana; Carl-Uwe Steeb v Jordi Arrese; Lou Gloria v Jason Stoltenberg.

First round doubles: Javier Frana/Patrick McEnroe v Doug Flach/Bryan Shelton; Jordi Arrese/Laszio Markovits v Otavio Della/Gabor Koves; Alex O'Brien/Michael Tebbutt v Don Johnson/Kenny Thorne; Brett Steven/Jason Stoltenberg v Ken Flach/Robert Seguso; Shelby Cannon/TJ Middleton v Brett Garner/Vince Spadea; Christian Miniussi/Maurice Ruah v Alex Antonitsch/Martin Sinner; Karim Alami/Stefano Pescosolido v Gaston Etlis/Daniel Orsanic; Grant Connell/Todd Martin v Ellis Ferreira/Brent Haygarth.

XAVIER'S AGONY -- Xavier Daufresne of Belgium found Easter to be no treat after losing to Kenny Thorne of the US in singles qualifying yesterday.