Torrential rain and high winds looked certain to scupper any chance of action at the XL Bermuda Open yesterday.

But in defiance of forecasts, the clouds parted by three in the afternoon and made way for glorious sunshine — allowing play to finally get going around half an hour later once the sodden clay courts had been allowed to dry.

While the one man everybody is waiting to see play — number one seed Sam Querrey from the US — doesn’t get on court until this morning, the first round match that generated the most interest yesterday was the clash between the young American wildcard Scoville Jenkins and German Benedikt Dorsch.

The 19-year-old Jenkins caught the attention of most tennis fans two years ago at the US Open when, as a mere 17-year-old, he gave the then world number two Rafael Nadal a sensational battle on the main stadium court — ultimately losing that second round match in three, closely-contested sets and causing a real stir among tennis commentators in the America.

A first round match on a damp court seven at the Coral Beach Club, watched by no more than 40 politely-clapping spectators, was certainly a far cry from those heady heights.

But the low-key setting did not appear to bother the Atlanta native as he dispatched his gritty but far less talented opponent in straight sets 7-5, 7-5 — with Jenkins’ thunderous forehand proving the pick of a wide range of attacking weapons.

While he looked in good touch throughout yesterday, in recent times Jenkins’ ranking has plunged from a career high of 222 last July to its current 380 after a cyst in his right wrist took close to four months to heal and kept him out of action.

As a result, Jenkins has been forced, like many higher-profile players before him, to build his ranking up steadily again through playing in small satellite events such as the XL — though when asked about how he was coping with this yesterday he said simply that he was glad to be back playing tennis again.

“The wrist injury last year has kept me back a bit and it took a lot longer than I would have wanted to get back on court again,” he said while icing a slightly swollen left knee in the players’ treatment room.

“But right now I’m not worrying too much about my ranking, I’m just trying to get better and better as each match progresses.

“It’s a little frustrating I guess having to play in these smaller tournaments but you just do what you have to do in the circumstances.

“I was pretty happy with the way I played today and I’m glad I got through in straight sets.

“I enjoy the clay really even though I don’t get too many opportunities to play on it.

“I’ve just come from a hard court event in California as well and only had one day really to practice on it. But it’s much easier going from quick courts to slow courts than the other way around, so once I’d got through the first set I started to feel more comfortable. Hopefully I can have a good week here.”

Elsewhere, there were three other first round singles matches played yesterday involving two of the eight seeded players.

And it was the last game of the day that produced the tournament’s first upset as the American number six seed Justin Gimelstob, a former US Davis Cup player, was ousted by charismatic Serbian wildcard Dusan Vemic 6-4, 6-4 — the latter’s first singles victory in the XL having been coming to Bermuda for several years.

In the first match on Centre Court, meanwhile, which began at around four in the afternoon, Frenchman Nicolas Devilder waltzed past Romanian Razvan Sabau in straight sets, winning 6-3, 6-1 while in a battle between two unseeded players, American Bobby Reynolds defeated Serbia’s Boris Pashanski - who spent large parts of the match moaning to the chair umpire about marginal line decisions - 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

A forecast of yet more rain for today makes it likely that there will be further delays at Coral Beach, though the games are still scheduled to get underway at 11 a.m..