PLAYERS struck lucky as the annual Bolton Tennis Tournament began in pleasant condition on Friday evening.

All scheduled matches were completed and there were no surprises in any of the level events with all seeded players winning.

The match that came closest to providing an upset was in the mixed doubles event in which sixth seeds Phil and Sarah Shacklady were pushed hard by Paul Evans and Rachel Branagan but came through with a 7-6, 7-5 win.

Saturday saw the tournament organisers' worst fears come true as heavy rain threatened severe disruption to the busiest day of the event.

Fortunately, three indoor courts were available by David Lloyd Leisure in Bolton.

However the rain relented for the afternoon and by using the courts at David Lloyd and the hard courts at the Leverhulme Pavilion all scheduled matches were completed.

The men's singles is following the pattern of seeding. All seeds who have played twice are through to the third round where they will start to come up against each other. In the only third round played to date fourth seed Ben Clark of Chester beat 13th seed Jorge Molina from Stockport by a comfortable 6-1, 6-0 scoreline.

Sunday saw the first seed fail to progress. Ninth seed Jack Castledine fell by the surprising score of 6-0, 6-0 to an in-form Tom Forrester.

In other singles matches 10th seed Martin Bromley pushed sixth seed Jordan Hall to three sets, Hall wining 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

In another three-set match Nick Kroll, seeded 15, was pushed hard by the unseeded Richard Lane but came through 7-6, 2-6, 7-6.

The current holder of the men's singles title, Steve Darlington, also needed three sets to beat James Moores after losing a tie-break in the first set, coming out a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victor.

The event continues throughout the week at the Leverhulme pavilion and spectators bitten by theWimbledon bug are welcome to come along to enjoy the action.