OTTAWA -- Fourth-seeded Bill Cowan came back from a rocky start Sunday and defeated Rob Bettauer of Vancouver 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 at the $25,000 Canadian National Tennis Championships.
Cowan, of Montreal, was up 4-0 at one point in the third set against the unseeded Bettauer.
'I wasn't concentrating very well in the first set,' he said. 'But once I gained my confidence, things went much better. I felt once I won that second set, I would win the match.'
Cowan, the fifth-ranked player in Canada, goes against Ottawa's Robbie Cartwright in the second round. Cartwright opened with a 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Louis Lambert of Montreal.
Toronto's Glenn Michibata, the defending champion and No. 1 seed in the tournament, will play his first match Monday against unseeded Harry Brittain of Burlington, Ont.
Carling Bassett of Toronto, the No. 23 player in the world and the defending champion at the tournament, kicks off women's singles play Monday with a match against unseeded Pauline Deslisle of Montreal.
A highlight of play Monday will be the match between 13-year-old Helen Kelesi of Richmond, B.C., considered the brightest prospect in Canadian tennis, and 23-year-old Kate Glancy of Vancouver.
The men's singles champion will collect $3,000 and the runnerup, $1,600 after the men's final next Sunday. The women's champion will take home $2,500 with the runnerup getting $1,300 after the final Saturday.
