lessons from the experienced doubles duo of Alice Duff and Nick Frost before losing 6-4, 6-4 in the Coral Beach Club Invitational tournament.

Simmons and Cordeiro, both power players, used their strengths to full advantage to take a 4-1 lead in the first set. They were unable to do any wrong before Duff and Frost caught themselves, and their opponents. By winning the next five games to take the first set, Duff and Frost took a lot of wind out of the sails of Simmons and Cordeiro.

However, Simmons and Cordeiro appeared to have recovered when Cordeiro held on in the first game of the second set, then broke Frost at 30 for a 2-0 lead but they were unable to maintain any level of consistency and within just eight points the game was level at 2-2.

With the eyes of the gallery on this lone match, many felt the young pair simply fell apart after losing the first set.

"We both play a power game,'' explained Simmons. "And we were just not able to maintain any level of consistency. We had too many high and lows -- valleys may be a better description.'' Simmons added: "We are still young in this doubles game and are still getting used to each other, having played only once before as a team. We'll get better.'' Duff and Frost will now face top seeds Kathy Stuhler and Ji Baumer in tomorrow's semi-final, while second seeds Gill Butterfield and Mike Curry, 6-4, 6-0 victors over Jans Rolls and Reto Krauer, will face Mary Lenore Blair and John Moore.

In yesterday's singles play all the top seeds had smooth sailing towards their eventual clashes as Donald Evans took less than an hour to defeat Nick Frost 6-2, 6-0 and second seed Michael Way eased past Reto Krauer 6-1, 6-3. Ji Baumer made short work of Alec Anderson 6-2, 6-3 and Mike Curry breezed past Mike Levon 6-2, 6-0.

The actions heats up today when Evans faces his stiffest competition to date when he takes on Baumer at 11 a.m. followed by Way and Curry at 11.45 a.m.

Meanwhile, Gill Butterfield, easily the competition's most competitive and successful player -- averaging nearly three matches a day -- will play her first final at 1.00 p.m. when she and Alice Duff take on Mary Lenore Blair and Gretchen Devlin in the women's 40s doubles.