SECOND seed Richard Garcia eased through his men's singles first round tie against David Slamin on the first day of this year’s Bolton Tennis Tournament.

Garcia, last year’s junior champion, made short work of the first set, winning 6-0 win before taking the second 6-3 at Bolton School's Leverhulme Pavilion yesterday evening.

Fifth seed Ross Smith made good use of his powerful serve to cruise past Scott Williams 6-0, 6-1.

Fourteenth seed Adam Thompson did not fare so well, however, going down to the 2013 junior champion Ben Pearson – son of league chairman Mark.

It looked to be a tricky draw for Thompson and proved to be so.

Thompson got off to a flying start, taking a commanding 4-1 lead in the first set before Pearson, sticking to his task impressively, took the next five games to win the set 6-4.

A close second set went to a tie break with Pearson again winning to progress to the next round.

The first handicap match to go to three sets was on court at 6.45pm. Three of the players were from Lostock – Mark Somervill playing with Natalie Sweet took on Gary Daley whose partner Susan Welsh plays at Holcombe Brook.

In an entertaining game Daley and Welsh bounced back from losing the first set 6-4 to take the next two 6-2, 6-5.

In another entertaining handicap mixed match Walmer’s father and daughter pairing Rick and Louisa Morley beat Rob Lister and Karen Hosker 6-3, 6-5.