Amelie Mauresmo was the unexpected provider of a much-needed boost for the home crowd as rain again decimated the French Open programme on Tuesday.
The former world number one was one of only 13 winners as rain sliced more than seven hours off the day's play with the final interruption coming as men's defending champion Rafael Nadal stood at 1-1 against Brazilian qualifier Thomas Bellucci.
France's hopes of their first men's winner since Yannick Noah's victory 25 years ago took a big hit this week with the withdrawals of Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
So it fell to Mauresmo, for so long predicted a champion in Paris only to let her adoring fans down time and again, to lift the flagging spirits at a sodden Roland Garros.
A slide down the world standings means she is now ranked 29th and Mauresmo, who has been suffering with an abdominal injury, again showed glimpses of the mental frailty that has haunted her previous tilts at her home Grand Slam.
But the former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion pulled herself together after a three-hour rain break to beat Ukraine's Olga Savchuk 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the first round, punching the air at her moment of triumph.
Being no stranger to rain delays across the English Channel at Wimbledon, where she captured the title in 2006, Mauresmo had no hesitation in declaring which soggy tournament she preferred.
"Well, Wimbledon I have the house about two minutes away, so...I can go back there and it's pretty," the 28-year-old, who has never passed the quarter-finals of her home Grand Slam, told reporters with a smile.
"Makes it maybe little bit easier there."
By the end of day three at the claycourt major, when all 128 first round matches should have been completed in both singles draws, organisers are facing a serious backlog as only 68 matches had been finished.
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, the fourth seed, and Dinara Safina, however, managed to overcome their first-round opposition during a brief respite from the rain.
HEIR APPARENT
Kuznetsova, beaten in the 2006 final by the retired Justine Henin who this week tipped the Russian as the heir apparent to her clay crown, took just 64 minutes to extinguish Aiko Nakamura's hopes on Court One.
She pummelled the unseeded Japanese 6-2, 6-3 and made clear her ambition for the title after Henin's withdrawal this month had thrown the field wide open.
"Definitely I am thinking [about winning the title]," she told reporters. "I'm thinking about being consistent and hoping this moment will come.
"I think working hard and doing things every day, and reaching finals, I am going to get this stage one day."
Safina, the 13th seed, also made quick work of her first foe, beating Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-3.
Nikolay Davydenko, the men's fourth seed, overcame a rain interruption and a medical timeout on his left thigh before brushing aside former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 for the loss of nine games.
Croatia's Mario Ancic, who missed the tournament through illness last year, and Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka were also among the relieved winners on a day of sheer frustration.
Women's top seed Maria Sharapova was among the players yet to see first-round action as for the second year running rain has disrupted the tournament's schedule.
The bad weather will have once again increased pressure on organisers to build a retractable roof over a showcourt.
Last year French Open general director Jean-Francois Vilotte said the tournament would eventually get a court with a roof but a year on, the plans or the funding for the new construction have yet to be approved by the city council.
One development at Roland Garros which did gain universal approval on Tuesday, however, was the naming of a new walkway to commemorate Noah's triumph.
© 2024 Rediff.com -