of the deuce rule. Indeed, in the lower Davis Cup groups recently, including that involving Bermuda, the idea was experimented with.

However, if they get their way, they will be doing away with one of the most intense moments of the game -- a moment which often tells you more about the psychological make-up of a player than any number of interviews.

A case in point was yesterday's Bermuda Open second round match between fourth seed Guillermo Canas and qualifier Max Mirnyi. Argentinian Canas had taken the first set comfortably 6-2 against the big-server from Belarus and had broken in the fifth of the second for a 3-2 lead.

Mirnyi, sensing his imminent departure from the tournament, tried desparately to put pressure on his opponent's next service game, taking advantage of a double fault and hitting a fine reaction volley from close to the net to set up a 0-40 lead.

Canas hit back to win the next three points, lobbing the grounded Mirnyi after he had dived spectacularly to retrieve an attempted pass to make it deuce. The advantage swung one way and another before, after a seventh deuce, the Argentinian forced his opponent into a low return into the net.

It was then you sensed that Mirnyi had done his best, and it had not been quite good enough: Canas broke the 6ft 5ins Mirnyi again and served out to love to clinch the match.

Canas, like most of the Argentinians who play in this tournament, seems to have a psychological toughness that is at least half the battle in becoming one of the top ranked players.

Sure, he has technical ability in abundance -- the faster Mirnyi served, the harder Canas sent it back -- but he also has the desire to chase everything down, retrieve and retrieve, so that his opponent can rarely count on even his finest shot as a certain winner.

W.Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, the 70s bible for students of the more cerebral approach to the sport, would approve. Indeed Canas, like Hernan Gumy and Lucas Arnold, his compatriots from Buenos Aires, may have swallowed it whole.

Gumy, it may be recalled, participated in the longest game in tennis history -- five hours and 31 minutes -- before losing 9-7 in the final set to Alex Corretja in the third round of last year's French Open.

When he and Arnold contested the 1998 Bermuda Open final, the first game alone took ten minutes and Gumy fought back from 5-1 down in the first set to win in a tie-break. With neither willing to give up, the match itself lasted a little over three absorbing hours.

Canas agreed it was something of an Argentinian trait: "We like to chase everything,'' he said. "But I was most pleased with my return of serve today.

Mirnyi has a serve that is very hard but I returned well.'' Mirnyi's perspective emphasised both the technical and emotional side of things: "I didn't do some of the things I should have done today. I should have increased my first serve percentage and been a bit more aggressive.

"I knew going into the match that he was good at getting the ball back. I needed more penetration with my shots. Instead, I was giving him a chance to retrieve.'' Another South American, number one seed Nicolas Lapentti, seems also to have learned quickly the importance of a positive mental approach.

Taking on Alejandro Hernandez in a second round match on centre court yesterday afternoon, the Ecuadorean sped to a 6-1 victory in the first set as he played solid tennis and the Mexican, ranked 125 in the world, proved error-prone.

Hernandez found some semblance of form in the second, breaking Lapentti thanks to one excellent stroke -- a stretch for a backhand volley from the back of the court to surprise his opponent at the net -- and a drop volley into the net by Lapentti.

Lapentti, in fact, suddenly looked a shadow of his first set self as a burst of errors left him 4-1 down. But he collected himself, broke back in the seventh game, again in the ninth and served to love for the five games in a row that took him to victory.

"I felt happy with my performance,'' said Lapentti, whose game is unspectacular but consistent as he probes with deep groundstrokes to either side trying to create an opening. "I started playing better than in my first round match.'' But he agreed he had had a little mental hiccup in the second set. "I was just a little up and down at the beginning of the second set. After winning the first set, maybe I relaxed a bit and lost my intensity.

"But once I was 4-1 down, I managed to put everything together again.''