4, suffered its first casualty yesterday with news that Jaime Yzaga of Peru has been forced to pull out of the inaugural tournament because of an ankle injury.

Tournament organiser Alec Anderson received word on Wednesday night from Yzaga's agent.

Although the tournament has lost one of its principal drawing cards, the withdrawal has opened the doors for Mikael Pernfors of Sweden.

Pernfors, ranked 32nd in the world, grabbed the biggest victory of his career since 1988 this summer when he won the Canadian Open in Montreal.

On the way to the triumph he defeated four players ranked in the top 20 -- Alexander Volkov, Petr Korda, Todd Martin and Wimbledon finalist Jim Courier.

He made the biggest jump in ATP rankings history this year when he leap-frogged from 237th to 32nd place.

He has won two titles in his career, at Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona -- both coming in 1988 -- and was a finalist at the French Open in 1986.

"He's a very exciting player,'' said Anderson. "He's going to be the most entertaining player to watch by far.''