Leigh Holland, an Australian with sure firepower and accuracy off the ground, was a bag of complaints after Owen Casey landed another surprise result to reach the quarter-finals of the ITF Futures series at Mount Pleasant yesterday.

Holland said there was general disquiet about what he saw as the low standard of umpiring. "Most of the players feel the same way," he said. The courts were also seen to produce some weird bounces. "Sometimes you don't know what to play, go for a winner or play the rally," commented the Australian.

Ironically, it was Casey who earned the only warning for a court violation. This came at the outset of the final set when the Irish player reacted to a dead bounce which gave Holland the break for a 2-1 lead. It was the first of four breaks of serve in the third set of a match which lasted two hours and 11 minutes and produced some terrific rallies.

Holland was the more powerful off the ground but could not break down Casey's stubborn resistance when all he had to do was hold serve after final-set breaks at 2-1 and 4-3.

The third-set tie-break saw Casey drop only one point, as he recaptured the form which had seen him win the first set 6-2. "He has a strong forehand," said Holland, "but he is not a powerful player. It's important for him that he wins here."

Scott Barron also reached the quarter-finals, beating Frenchman Phillippe Pasquier 6-2, 7-6 in an hour. Barron unleashed booming serves and unpredictable returns against an equally strong server but one who struggled with fragile returns.

"I never had any problems with my serve and I'd reckon I got 85 per cent of my first serves in compared with most times when I have to grind out the point in the rallies," Barron said.

The Irishman lost only one point on serve in the first set and five points in the second. He put in a grandstand finish, winning the last eight points to jump from 5-5 to 7-5 for the match.

Second seeded British Davis Cup player Luke Milligan went out to tall, unseeded Slovakian Andrej Kracman.