It was a day for the Comeback Kids and an evening when everyone was simply told to come back.

An early morning deluge of rain forced the postponement of last night's XL Bermuda Open match involving Todd Martin, the tournament's top seed, and qualifier Kenny Thorne.

A few minutes before the decision to postpone the match was officially made Mauricio Hadad of Colombia scored the first upset of the Open with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over New Zealand's Brett Steven at Coral Beach and Tennis Club.

Steven, with a residence in Southampton, allowed the floodgates to open after taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the second set and appeared en route to an easy win. Hadad, however, suddenly gained composure as the match took on a whole new look.

Hadad wasn't the only come-from-behind story on the Open's first day -- five of the seven matches were comeback stories -- and two other top seeds besides Steven, Christian Rudd of Norway, ranked eighth, and number six seed Fernando Meligeni of Brazil were ousted.

Ruud was beaten by Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 while fellow Czech Radomir Vasek defeated Meligeni 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

None of the yesterday's matches were played on the stadium's main court, with puddles of water never sufficiently drying up in time for the Martin-Thorne clash. Fans holding tickets for the match will be able to use them today or tomorrow.

Seven of the 12 matches on tap were played, however, with all doubles play scratched along with the one singles match.

The postponement was decided by ATP Tour Supervisor Gayle Bradshaw in concert with tournament officials Ron Erskine, Alec Anderson and Brian Earley.

"We just went down and looked at it a few minutes ago and it's just not drying out on the north side,'' said Bradshaw. "The moisture's holding underneath and with the sun going down it's not going to dry much the rest of the day.'' Bradshaw said the decision to call off the matches would not pose a severe problem for the schedule-makers during the rest of the week.

"We really lost just one singles match so we're not hurt at all yet. It wasn't worth holding everybody around here and taking a risk with the safety of the players or the condition of the court.'' In other singles matches Jamie Morgan of Australia defeated David Witt of the US 6-2, 6-4 and Michael Tebbutt of Australia turned on the power by recording 17 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 triumph over Hernan Gumy of Argentina. Lars Jonsson of Sweden defeated American Alex O'Brien 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 and Bryan Shelton of US defeated Alejo Mancisidor of Spain 6-2, 7-5.

Hadad produced his upset in a one hour, 49 minute thriller on court eight. The 23-year-old, ranked 114, settled down after losing nine of the first ten games against Steven, ranked at 52. His experience on clay shone brightly on a day when the sun rarely did.

"The first set I was missing everything, it was like I wasn't playing at all,'' said Hadad. "I was making a lot of mistakes and I couldn't win a serve so in the second set I just said `well relax, just get the ball in play make him play and make him run a little and start fighting'.'' Steven showed some fighting spirit himself after digging into a deep hole in the third set coming back from a 5-0 deficit and winning three straight games before losing the ninth game.

"I didn't play too badly,'' said a gracious Steven afterwards. "I just didn't put him away when I had my chance at 3-1 in the second set. And from there he really grew in confidence and was making some real good shots on the run and I started to get a little frustrated. He was getting so many balls back.

"I tried to play faster and tried to hit the ball a lot faster and I was rushing my shots and my first serve percentage dropped a little bit (he won 31 of 53 first serve points) and I was trying to hit a little bit too hard.'' He added: "It's a good match for me to play first-up on clay (in 1995) because although I lost I think I've learned a lot that I can put into use because I'm not at anywhere near clay court fitness yet.'' Morgan was overpowering against Witt, who clearly has not recovered fully from surgery on his right knee.

Witt's girlfriend Kimberley watched most of the match with her hands clasped as if almost in prayer, but Morgan will now get a bigger shot at the Open's collection plate.

The Australian was impressive in virtually every aspect of his game, especially in first serve points won (25 of 27) while notching six aces.

"I probably stayed back more than what I normally do, but I actually like playing on clay,'' he said. "I like to hit some groundstrokes and on the clay it gives me a real good chance to use my groundstrokes. I think I enjoy it because you've got to work for your points. . .it's more like chess out there.'' Shelton, meantime, made quick work of Mancisidor, winning in one hour, 13 minutes while playing much stronger than his first round loss in the XL Classic 16 months ago.

BRETT STEVEN -- The tournament's fourth seed had his hands full yesterday with Mauricio Hadad of Colombia.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro DAVID WITT -- Coming back from knee surgery the American showed grit despite a straight sets loss.