With the clay court season upon them, top players were looking to get in a good workout in the first round of the XL Bermuda Open.

It might have been a little too good as far as Vince Spadea was concerned.

After seeing number four seed Scott Draper and number eight Dennis Van Scheppingen survive stiff challenges from a pair of qualifiers yesterday, Spadea nearly became a stiff himself.

Playing towering Brazilian Jaime Oncins in last night's feature match, the fifth-seeded American rallied to pull out a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory at Coral Beach's centre court.

Oncins' powerful ground strokes -- mixed in with a timely array of slices and lobs -- kept Spadea off balance throughout the night. And were it not for a couple of collapses by the world's 148th ranked player, Spadea might be looking at the shortest of his three trips to the $125,000 tournament.

Spadea was broken in the first and seventh games in losing the first set. But in the second, he ripped off four straight games when Oncins collected a total of four points -- two of them on Spadea double faults -- to take a 5-1 lead.

Spadea held on only to find himself broken in the third game of the third set and behind 5-3 when he drove his two-fisted backhand into the net at 40-30.

But the 22-year-old from Chicago is nothing if not tough. With Oncins' baseline drives and heavy serve dipping lower, Spadea sensed fatigue, winning the next three games and losing only two points in the process. Oncins, suddenly down 5-6, was serving for the tiebreak but fell behind 0-30 and then fired two straight double faults to send Spadea into Wednesday's second round.

Van Scheppingen and Draper also had to work for their wins, albeit not as long.

The former finally got the best of his old rival, Grant Doyle, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, while the latter got by Tom Kempers 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). Other first round winners were Jeff Salzenstein, who upset Gianluca Pozzi, and Nicolas Lapentti, who dispatched qualifier Sebastian Prieto.

Draper didn't have to watch Spadea in order to know that upsets are more likely than not, particularly on Coral Beach's Har-Tru green clay.

"The thing about tennis these days is the depth,'' said Draper, a 22-year-old Aussie. "You have to be mentally ready (for every match). You have to have a game plan and be ready to adjust where necessary.'' A strong clay-court player -- he's reached the fourth round of the French Open the past two years -- Draper was quick to dismiss Kempers' ranking (480 on the ATP computer).

"He won three matches just to get here; You have to give credit where it's due.'' Draper is coming off a strong performance of his own, beating Andre Agassi and almost knocking off the other American Davis Cupper, Jim Courier, on the hard-court of the Lipton Championships. But it was his first time on clay in almost a year so you'll forgive him if the transition wasn't entirely smooth.

In total it took him about 75 minutes, about 50 of them in the second set.

Kempers' ace gave him a 6-5 lead but he lost a marathon in the next game and was serving at 4-4 in the tiebreaker when Draper broke him with a return down the line.

Draper struggled with his serve throughout the match but only lost a handful of points because of it. "On clay, you don't need to bang a lot of aces,'' he said.

Another player not used to clay -- and a guy who admits he doesn't care for the stuff -- is Van Scheppingen.

"It was tough for me,'' the 22-year-old said. "I'm more of a hardcourt player.'' Having lost twice before in three sets to Doyle in Holland, he could easily have made it three straight losses. Doyle, a gritty Australian, broke Van Scheppingen to close to 4-5 in the first set -- only to lose his own serve in the next game.

Slamming a ball away in frustration, Doyle could easily have folded but battled back gamely, rifling back-to-back aces for 3-3 in the second set and racing in to scoop Van Scheppingen's lob down the line to break the Dutchman's serve and take a 4-3 lead en route to a 6-3 win.

A pair of double faults at 1-2 cost Doyle in the third set. He was down 3-5 and staved off a pair of match points before Van Scheppingen sent a long volley into the corner for the win.

Van Scheppingen, also playing on clay for the first time in a year, said afterwards he struggled with Doyle's slices at the net.

OPEN AT A GLANCE YESTERDAY'S RESULTS SINGLES Scott Draper (4), Australia d Tom Kempers, Netherlands, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) Nicolas Lapentti, Ecuador, d Sebastian Prieto, Argentina, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 Jeff Salzentstein, US, d Gianluca Pozzi, Italy, 6-2, 6-2 Dennis Van Scheppingen (8), Netherlands, d Grant Doyle (Australia) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 Vincent Spadea (5), US, d Jaime Oncins, Brazil, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 DOUBLES Tommy Ho/Brett Steven d Frederik Bergh/Rikard Bergh 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 TODAY'S SCHEDULE DAY SESSION Centre Court: Jason Stoltenberg v Dirk Dier, 11.00 a.m.; followed by Javier Frana v Bryan Shelton; followed by Guillermo Canas v Kris Goossens.

Court Seven: Mariano Zabaleta v Jacco Eltingh, 11.00 a.m.; followed by Brett Steven v Steve Bryan; followed by Wayne Black v Marcelo Charpentier; followed by Paul Kilderry/Chris Wilkinson v Patrik Fredriksson/Sebastian Leblanc.

Court Five: Brandon Coupe/Paul Rosner v Sandon Stolle/Cyril Suk, not before 2.00 p.m.

EVENING SESSION Centre Court: Mark Knowles v Sargis Sargsian, not before 6.30 p.m.; followed by Bill Behrens/David Dilucia v Jeff Salzenstein/Kenny Thorne.