AUSTRALIAN second seed Marc Polmans survived a huge scare against Belarusian world number 384 Mikalai Haliak to advance to the quarter finals at the Burnie International Challenger 75 event yesterday.

After winning the first set and being in a good position in the second, Polmans dropped off which opened the door for Haliak, and the contest ended up going to a third set tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, the Australian needed a favourable net cord to go his way before getting up 11-9.

The match on Centre Court lasted two hours and 43 minutes before Polmans could salute 6-3 4-6 7-6 and book his place in the last eight of the tournament. It was a nail-biting deciding set that looked to be Polmans’ for the taking when he served for the match. Ultimately he was broken and Haliak served confidently to force a tiebreaker.

Both players traded mini-breaks and match points throughout the nail-biting tiebreaker with several unforced errors matched by a number of impressive winners. The gap between Polmans’ best and worst was on show even within the same point as he delivered a tweener running back with the flight at the baseline before missing a regulation forehand the very next shot.

After Haliak had two chances on match point – and Polmans also had a chance of his own he failed to capitalise on at first – it would be the Aussie’s determination late – along with a touch of luck – that got him home. Just when it looked like Haliak was in control of the point, Polmans delivered a baseline shot that hit the netcord, but luckily rolled over the net.

Polmans ended up winning an impressive 66 and 63 per cent of his first and second serve points, while saving seven of 10 break point opportunities. Haliak, who topped the aces count (9-3) actually shaded Polmans for first serve percentage (69 per cent) and had the same amount of break point conversions (3/10) but only won 52 per cent of his second serve points. In the end, Polmans won just seven more points than his 25-year-old opponent (110-103).

It was a relief for the second seed who had won his first round match only dropping three games. His next up encounter will be far trickier, taking on sixth seed Yasutaka Uchiyama. The Japanese talent knocked off compatriot Yusuke Takahashi 6-2 6-4 with an impressive 66 and 67 per cent success rate off his first and second serves, compared to his opponent’s 53 and 54 per cent.

The Australian-Japanese head-to-heads will not stop at Polmans and Uchiyama, with Alex Bolt and Hiroki Moriya facing off in the other quarter final of the draw’s bottom half. Bolt toppled third seed and fellow Australian Adam Walton 6-3 6-2, while Moriya upset seventh seed James McCabe in an identical match of 6-3 6-2.