Seeds struggle as rain lashes French Open

Monica Seles and Kim Clijsters made heavy weather of first round clashes on Tuesday as rain lashed Roland Garros stadium on day two of the French Open.

Three-times champion Seles had to fight back from a set down to beat Angeles Montolio 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 while Clijsters advanced by the skin of her teeth with a 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 win over Tatiana Poutchek.

But British sixth seed Tim Henman illustrated his new-found expertise on clay, beating Spanish baseliner Galo Blanco comprehensively 6-4, 6-3, 7-6.

Men's 14th seed Jiri Novak also advanced smoothly, ousting Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.

Heavy, persistent showers played havoc with the schedule, with organisers forced to re-jig their schedule for the second day in succession.

An early rain delay meant 22 first round matches were put back to Wednesday, including the tie between third seed Serena Williams and Slovak Martina Sucha.

Former winners Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Mary Pierce will also have to wait for Wednesday to start their tournament.

Clijsters struggled from the off on a damp Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Runner-up to Jennifer Capriati last year, the Belgian fourth seed looked to be headed for the exit as she sprayed a series of unforced errors around the arena.

Ultimately, though, it was Belarussian Poutchek's nerve which snapped as she dumped a weak backhand into the net to hand Clijsters victory.

Seles survived a nasty scare early on in her match as Montolio barely put a foot wrong on centre court to race into a 5-0 lead.

Sixth seed Seles drew on all her trademark grit, however, and although she lost that opening set on a tiebreak a rain delay allowed her to re-think her tactics and she reeled off nine games in a row from 3-3 in the second set to clinch a second round spot.

Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, Russian second seed Marat Safin and Anna Kournikova were all scheduled to play later on Tuesday, but with rain clouds enveloping the Paris venue, many more matches were expected to be postponed.