"The Magician" goes through

Two-time defending champion Fabrice Santoro made it through to the second round of the Campbell's Hall of Fame C'ships.

But rain continued to hold sway at Newport.

The Frenchman breezed past Italy's Flavio Cipolla 6-3 7-5 in their delayed opening round match, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday before rain intervened, pushing it back a day and then forcing an early close yesterday.

Santoro will now face Taylor Dent in the second round.

Also in opening-round action, Kevin Kim got an easy passage as Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean withdrew with a shoulder injury in the second set of their match.

Another American, Rajeev Ram, beat Colombia's Alejandro Falla 6-4 7-5, Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky beat Canada's Frank Dancevic 7-6 (11-9) 2-6 7-5, Austria's Samuel Groth edged Brazil's Ricardo Mello 7-5 3-6 6-3 and Belgium's Olivier Rochus downed Alexander Peya of Austria 6-2 4-6 6-4.