in the XL Tennis Classic.

Shelton, the US tennis star featured on every kind of promotional material from posters to programmes for the tournament is, mercifully, still part of the doubles line-up.

Singles? "Nothing really felt that great today,'' said Shelton yesterday after he was guillotined by Ctislav Dosedel of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3 during first-round singles play at Centre Court of the Coral Beach and Tennis Club.

"I didn't serve extremely well, I didn't volley that well and I made a lot of mistakes from the ground. I saw glimpses of what I could do out there, but mentally and physically it was just an inconsistent match for me.'' Shelton joins four other players -- Maurice Ruah (Venezuela), Carsten Arriens (Germany), Steve Bryan (US) and Mauricio Hadad (Colombia) -- who were eliminated from singles as the tournament finally got revved up after a temporary delay yesterday.

Winning their first-round singles matches were Franco Davin (Argentina), Dosedel, Brian Devening (US) and Xavier Daufresne (Belgium) on a peculiar day, which featured a 90-minute wait because of soggy conditions on Centre Court; a player (Arriens) being ousted for using his tennis racquet like it was a javelin and a match cancellation because a player's luggage failed to arrive on time.

And the radar gun is still on the blink.

Devening, a weekend qualifier, got the first victory of the tournament when he edged Bryan 6-3, 6-3 during a mid-morning match at Court Seven.

But he had his hands full when Bryan refused to sit back taking the sixth and seventh games of each set.

Devening said the turning point in the match was in the eighth game of the first set when his opponent was ahead 40-0 only to lose the game handing him a 5-3 lead.

Bryan's game almost collapsed in the fourth game of the second set when he was forced to come back after holding a 40-15 lead at one time. Three games later it was the same story when he was leading 40-0 only to allow Devening to gain the upper hand in the Battle of Texans.

"He was able to implement his game plan a lot better than I did,'' said Bryan, a one-time NCAA singles champion. "He never gave me a chance to get into any kind of groove.'' Shelton suffered a similar fate against Dosedel, seeded sixth in the tournament and who arrived in Bermuda in peak form, recently reaching his first career Tour final at Sao Paulo.

But the appreciative crowd did get an opportunity to see first-hand why Shelton's service is considered so formidable on the tour. His first delivery often turned the ball into a fuzzy yellow missile that seemingly could penetrate armour.

Shelton, who is coming off a shoulder injury and practised with Dosedel in Florida a few weeks ago, dropped the first set 6-2 and took a 3-0 lead in the second set before losing 6-4, hitting a particular low point when he lost the seventh game by double-faulting three consecutive times.

Dosedel now faces Devening in the second round, while Shelton, who was cheered on in the match by Bermudian Donald Evans, now teams up with Francisco Montana (US) against Mike Bauer (US) and David Rikl (Czech Republic) in doubles play.

Stafford advanced by taking his match by default over Arriens 5-7, 6-2, 2-0 when his German opponent was ousted after he violated three codes of conduct for racquet abuse, even smashing it in half the third time.

Tournament supervisor Michael Loo would not say what kind of fine Arriens is facing for his unruly behaviour, but ATP rules state that he could face one up to $500.

Daufresne bounced Hadad from the tournament with a 6-1, 7-5 triumph while Davin, who has defeated Boris Becker twice and Andre Agassi once this year, beat Ruah 6-4, 6-3.

The singles match between Lars Jonsson (Sweden) and Chris Garner (US) was shelved until today because Jonsson's luggage was late arriving here.

Easily the most entertaining match of the tournament so far, however, was the doubles clash won by Swedes Mikael Pernfors and Niclas Kroon over Libor Pimek (Belgium) and David Witt (US) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

While Pimek and Witt were all business, Pernfors and Kroon were enjoying themselves and the crowd loved every minute of it.

"It's in our personalities to have fun out there,'' said Pernfors, who is the top singles seed of the tournament and faces Paul Annacone (US) tonight.

"And it always helps when the people enjoy what we're doing.'' Kroon, who has taken the tournament by storm winning three qualifying matches and a doubles match, said: "I've been lucky so far. Things are just going my way.'' Results, Schedule -- Page 26.

CTISLAV DOSEDEL -- Justified his seeding with straight sets win over Bryan Shelton.