Marc Polmans set to face Dane Sweeny in second round of Canberra International

The mullet, popularised by Lleyton Hewitt in the early 2000s, is back.

Max Purcell, Dane Sweeny, even Jordan Thompson have all jumped on the bandwagon in recent years.

It's a trend Polmans has enjoyed watching grow but it's not one he's keen to follow.

Polmans, of course, has become a cult figure in his own right with his famed legionnaires cap. The 25-year-old one of few men brave enough to sport the look and fans have fallen in love with him.

The talent proudly wore his trusty white cap during Tuesday's first-round 6-3, 6-4 victory over American qualifier Mitchell Krueger at the Canberra International.

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The win set up a second-round showdown with fellow Australian Sweeny.

It's the mullet v the legionnaires cap.

"I've been wearing the hat since I was 10 years old," Polmans said. "I grew up playing in it and it's stuck with me over my junior career and now into the pros. Everyone knows me by it, so I stick with it.

"A few of the Aussie boys are bringing the mullet back, I don't mind it, it's different. With my hat it might not be the best match, so I'll stick with the hat for now."

While Polmans loves to have some fun with the legionnaires cap and the mullet, he possesses a steely resolve behind his friendly nature.

The 25-year-old was dominant in victory and lifted in the big moments. Twice facing 0-40 in the second set, Polmans served his way out of trouble to progress to the second round.

Sweeny was also impressive in his first-round win on Monday and took care of business against fifth-seed Pavel Kotov.

Polmans was pleased with is performance on Tuesday but knows he needs to lift in the second round, likely to be played Wednesday.

"It's going to be a tough match," he said. "Sweens is a young up and coming Aussie player, he's got tremendous wheels around the court. It will be a tough match but I'm looking forward to it, it's going to be a good one."

Tuesday's other matches saw men's No.1 seed Marton Fucsovics defeat Francesco Maestrelli in straight sets. British qualifier Liam Broady continued his winning run with a victory over Francesco Passaro and Luca Nardi beat Lukas Klein.

In the women's draw, Australian Petra Hule fell to Elina Avanesyan 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and Japan's Mai Hontama prevailed over Leyre Romero Gormaz in straight sets.

Polmans arrived in Canberra this week determined to put a challenging 2022 behind him.

Ankle surgery kept the athlete out of action until the end of May and triggered a fall down the rankings.

Having previously reached a career high of 116, Polmans fell all the way to 787. A series of solid performances in the second half of 2022 saw that climb to his current ranking of 334 and he's eager to crack the top 100 this year.

"It was my first time dealing with a long-term injury so it was something new and not the easiest for me," he said. "The positive was I could stay at home and be with my family for a bit longer, which was nice.

"The first six months didn't go as planned, but the last six months was great. I'm hoping this season to have a full 12 months to get my ranking to where it was. I'm looking forward to playing in all the slams, I only took part in one last year so hopefully all four this year."

While his immediate focus is on the Canberra International, Polmans also has one eye on next week's Australian Open qualifying in Melbourne.

The talent reached the second round of qualifying last year and he's eager to progress to the main draw this time around.

"It's a great confidence booster to start the year with a win before heading to Australian Open qualifiers next week," he said.

"I'm pumped to get another match this week and hopefully a couple more."

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