One of Britain’s top juniors, David Rice, secured his place in the second round after his opponent, third seed Joshua Goodall, retired in the second set.
Rice won a close first set on tie-break before Goodall conceded the match early on in the second set because of illness.
Qualifier Rice, world ranked 1,272, now faces Britain’s Miles Kasiri, who overcame a tough test against last year’s semi-finalist Ian Flanagan to progress with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win.
Ken Skupski also impressed when he defeated seventh seed Raphael Durek 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 despite being around 600 places lower in the rankings than his Austrian opponent.
Skupski now plays fellow Brit Chris Easton.
The other British players in action today are Neil Bamford, who takes on fourth seed Dawid Olejniczak of Poland, and Matthew Smith, who faces eighth seed Jeroen Masson.
The first round in the ladies’ $25,000 event starts today, and with more than half of the competitors in the top 300 in the world, it looks set to be a high-quality event.
Britain’s Katharina Brown made it through qualifying, booking her place in the main draw when her opponent, the top seed for the qualifiers, Irena Pavlovic, retired with the game level at one set all.
Brown takes on Camila Giorgi of Italy.
Top seed Katie O’Brien (GB) takes on qualifier Irina Kuzmina, ranked 444 in the world, and Melanie South, third seed Naomi Cavaday, and Georgie Stoop are just some of the top British players on court this morning.
In the doubles events there were no real upsets in the men’s yesterday, while the ladies’ start this afternoon.
