Rain wipes out most of slate
The French tennis federation has said it is considering building a retractable roof by 2012.
PARIS - A photo of Maria Sharapova graced the cover of the French Open's official daily program yesterday, which might be considered false advertising.
The world's No. 1-ranked woman did not play a single point, forced by wet weather to wait instead until at least Day 4 of the tournament to begin her quest to complete a career Grand Slam.
Rafael Nadal played all of two games of his opening match before collecting his things and trundling off center court, the start of his bid for a fourth consecutive title at the clay-court major halted by one of a series of showers.
Only 13 of 72 scheduled matches were completed, and past major champions Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova were quite pleased to duck into the second round between drizzles.
Yes, Wimbledon has come to Roland Garros, with rain affecting action on all three days so far and allowing for less than three hours of play yesterday. While the All England Club is constructing a dome over Centre Court ahead of the 2009 championship, the French tennis federation has said it might build a retractable roof by 2012.
"We definitely would like to have that," said the 22d-seeded Mauresmo, a Frenchwoman who overcame nine double-faults and 35 total unforced errors to beat Olga Savchuk, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
While it's too early in the tournament for too much concern about fitting everything in, players such as Sharapova or Nadal - whose match originally was on Monday's slate before being postponed the first time, and eventually will resume at 1-1 in the first set - already face the prospect of playing on consecutive days if they proceed through the draw.
Then again, Nadal played for seven days in a row last year at Wimbledon, where he reached the final before losing to No. 1 Roger Federer.
"For Nadal, it doesn't matter," said No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, who eliminated 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. "He can play today, tomorrow, after tomorrow. . . . It's no problem for him."
No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka, Mario Ancic and Robin Soderling all won in straight sets.
Five matches that were suspended in progress Monday and resumed yesterday still were not finished. That included John Isner of the United States against Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in an encounter that was tied at 1 in the fifth set.