Dan Evans has defied the current world rankings to reach the second round of the € 42.5k Caversham International AEGON Pro-Series event at Les Ormes Indoor Tennis Centre in Jersey.
Despite playing an opponent ranked thirty two places higher than Evans, the British No.5 won 6-3, 6-3 against Martin Fischer (AUT) to set up a second round clash with tournament No.4 seed Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) or Jan Minar (CZE).
Evans broke his opponent three times during the match that lasted 1 hour and 24 minutes, as he hopes to build on a recent runners-up and semi-final appearances at the $15k AEGON Pro-Series events in Glasgow and Cardiff respectively.
Fellow Briton Dan Cox pushed tournament No.1 seed Florian Mayer (GER) all the way in his opening round match, taking the game to a three set tie-break before eventually succumbing 1-6, 7-5, 6-7(1).
"I had chances but just could not put my opponent away and perhaps in the end fitness told but I was very pleased with the way I approached the match and the way I played and I am really looking forward to my next tournament" said Cox afterwards.
The performance was all the more impressive as Cox has only recently returned from injury and reached the first round of the main draw after an absorbing clash with fellow Briton Matthew Illingworth, which also went to a third set tie-break.
Cox eventually edged to victory over Illingworth, winning the third set to 8 in the tie-break, fending off two game points in the process, to set up the match with the No.1 seed from Germany.
Elsewhere in the tournament, David Rice lost 7-6(5), 2-6, 3-6 to Yannick Mertens (BEL) despite claiming the first set over a player ranked 302 places higher than him.
Rice commented: "I was pleased with my performance but felt if I could have raised my game a little more I could have come through the game on the winning side but it was not to be."
Josh Goodall also went down 3-6, 4-6 to Tobias Kamke (GER), Alex Bogdanovic lost in two sets to Robin Haase (NED), 4-6, 2-6 and Roman Valent (SUI) won 7-6(4), 6-0 against James Marsalek.