Rain hinders Nadal defence

12 April 2012

Reigning champion Rafael Nadal's return to action at Roland Garros lasted just nine minutes on Tuesday as rain forced his first-round match at the French Open to be suspended.

The Spaniard, bidding to win his fourth title on the trot here, was level at 1-1 with Brazilian opponent Thomaz Bellucci when the rain that had ruined most of the third day's play came down again.

Nadal, 21, was second on on the Philippe Chatrier court, behind Amelie Mauresmo, but ended up kicking his heels for most of the day owing to constant drizzle in the French capital, and will now resume his match on Wednesday.

The opening two-and-a-half hours were rained off and then after 90 minutes' action, the heavens opened again and play was suspended for three hours. Nadal was eventually able to swing his racket in anger at 7.38pm local time but was soon trotting back to his dressing room.

Earlier, Nikolay Davydenko and Stanislas Wawrinka had maintained their focus after the lengthy rain delay to clinch comfortable straight-sets wins.

Both players had been two sets up when the rain came down midway through the afternoon but on returning to action, neither had any trouble sealing their passages to the second round.

Fourth seed Davydenko defeated Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-3 6-3 6-3 to set up a clash with either Marat Safin or Jean-Rene Lisnard, while ninth seed Wawrinka beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-4 6-3 and will face Robin Haase or Marin Cilic next.

Elsewhere, only three other matches in the men's draw were completed - and two of them saw seeds dumped out of the tournament in straight sets.

Argentina's Juan Monaco (13), seeded for the first time at Roland Garros, was thrashed 6-2 6-3 6-1 by Robin Soderling on Court Two. And Andreas Seppi (31) was dispatched 6-2 7-6 (7/1) 6-2 by the big-serving Mario Ancic, who has not appeared at a Grand Slam since the 2007 Australian Open because of a melange of illness and injuries.