George McGill, currently on a four-year scholarship at Indiana University, aims to use this week's Irish Open Indoor Tennis Championships at Riverview as a stepping stone towards clinching a higher place in the order on Ireland's Davis Cup team to face Hungary.

He, predictably, won his opening-round match in the Pamela Scott-sponsored event with consummate ease last night, but realises it will be a difficult task to win the title from the third-seeded position.

McGill selected and played his shots with confidence to drop only one game to Bryan McDermott in less than a hour.

Producing an inhibited performance against Owen Casey in last year's final was a huge disappointment for McGill. However, because of his work rate in the US over the past year, he reckons he can do better this time.

By far the most competitive match of the night saw reigning Irish under-18 champion Nick Malone pushed to the brink when beating Conor Taylor. Malone's ability to cope better on the pressure points was the difference. Now that Robert Collins has recovered from injury, he will be campaigning for a Davis Cup place to emulate his brother Eoin. Collins showed no signs of his injury problem when he scored a 6-2 6-0 win over Kieran Lovell.

David O'Connell's win over Neil Fagan could be regarded as the first major surprise in the men's singles. O'Connell won a gutsy match, 6-4, 6-4. Limerick's Niland brothers, Conor and Ross, saw little action. Although Conor got on court, his match against Karl Cooley ended early in the second set when Cooley was forced to retire with a wrist injury. Oxford student Ross conceded a walk-over to Ciaran Watson.

Junior Wimbledon player David Mullins went through with ease against Niall Turner, 6-1, 6-0, but the bumpy road has hardly begun for the plethora of junior aspirants. John Doran, Ireland's hero against Denmark in the recent European Team Championship and the number two seed, is poised to give a true indication of what will be required when he opens against Fiachra Lennon this evening.