yesterday after being beaten in the qualifying round of the Canadian Open being held in Calgary, Alberta.

Rose went down in straight sets, 15-13, 15-11,15-7 against top Canadian Joe Besso, but was awarded a spot in the first round when he became a `lucky loser' winning a draw for the spot vacated when injured world number one Jansher Khan withdrew from the tournament.

"I had been training hard and feeling very confident of winning heading into the match and then played like absolute rubbish,'' exclaimed Rose. "Nothing would go right for me while all the luck seemed to be going his way.'' Still Rose has a shot but the road only gets rougher, as his `reward' comes in the form of former British champion Paul Gregory, who beat Zamam Gul, a previous top 10 ranked player, 15-12, 15-9, 15-10.

"It's going to be tough, all the best players in the world are here,'' said Rose, currently ranked 85th in the world. "I'll give my best try and hope it's better than the day before.'' "I'm trying to keep my ranking up and keep playing against top players in as many tournaments as I can.

"I play 40 to 50 weeks in Bermuda with virtually no real competition so I have to go away and get better competition.''