The lone Tasmanian in the men’s draw of the Burnie International, Harry Bourchier, has kept his home state tournament dream alive on Monday.
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Bourchier advanced pat the first round after his opponent, Harri Heliovaara of Finland was forced to retire with a back injury in the second set with Bourchier leading 7-6, 3-2.
The Hobart born 22-year-old felt he was playing well until Heliovaara was forced to retire.
“Early in the match, (I) was holding serve until he broke me and he put pressure on me but I broke back straight away,” Bourchier said.
“I was happy to get that first set, I think his back went in the last game (fifth game of the second set) and obviously after your back pain kicks in.”
Bourchier will return to centre court on Tuesday morning against Spanish third seed Pedro Martinez.
It was a fairly successful day for the Australian competitors in round one, with five winning through.
Wildcard Jacob Grills made light work of Spain’s Enrique Lopez Perez 6-2,6-1 in just over an hour, while Max Purcell handed Spain’s David Perez Sanz a 6-2, 6-2 defeat in just 53 minutes.
Burnie veteran James Duckworth got past compatriot Aleksandar Vukic 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour in a game closer than the scoreline suggested.
Maverick Banes was made to work in his clash against Turkey’s Cem Ilkel before advancing with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory in two hours and eight minutes.
The final Australian male to taste success on the first day was Jeremy Beale, who defeated Vietnam’s Nam Hoang Ly 6-4, 6-3 in qualifying to reach the main draw and a meeting with fellow Australian Bradley Mousley.
Akira Santillan was the first Australian to be eliminated from the men’s singles draw, staving off a number of match points in the second set before falling to Spain’s Nicola Kuhn 6-4, 7-6 in grueling match that lasted over two hours.
Santillan was joined by Dayne Kelly, who lost 6-4,6-4 to Russia’s Alexander Zhurbin in an hour and 24 minutes and Andrew Harris, who fell to China’s Zhe Li 7-5, 6-7, 6-3.
It was an expected early exit for 2018 runner-up Daniel Altmaier of Germany, falling in three sets to Canada’s Steven Diez 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
In the other first round matches, Italy’s Alessandro Bega defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tomislav Brkic 6-3, 6-2, South Korea’s Yunseong Chung defeated Spain’s Jordi Samper-Montana 7-5, 6-1 and Germany’s Sebastian Fanselow defeated Chinese Taipei’s Tsung-Hua Yang 6-4, 6-3.
In the second qualifying match, France’s Sadio Doumbia defeated Japan’s Rio Noguchi 6-4, 6-2.
Doumbia will meet Australian wildcard Luke Saville in the third game on the centre court on Tuesday.