Henin, Federer fizzle in Paris drizzle

Justine Henin's French Open fireworks failed to ignite on a dank and wet Parisian Tuesday as the Belgian fifth seed was bundled out of the first round by Hungarian qualifier Aniko Kapros 4-6 6-1 6-0.

She was joined on the sidelines by eighth seed Roger Federer, who stumbled to a 6-3 6-2 6-4 defeat against gifted Moroccan Hicham Arazi.

Swiss Federer was a shadow of the player who demolished Marat Safat to land the Hamburg Masters title a week ago and quietly slid out of Roland Garros without putting up much of a fight.

"It was such a big moment in Hamburg -- it was kind of tough out there mentally," said Federer.

A semi-finalist last year, Henin's finesse and touch were all but useless on a sodden Court Suzanne Lenglen as rain drizzled throughout her one hour 52 minute ordeal.

Fellow Belgian and fourth seed Kim Clijsters narrowly avoided her compatriot's sorry fate, earlier surviving by the skin of her teeth on the same court with a 3-6 6-3 8-6 win over Tatiana Poutchek.

Men's fifth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov also made heavy weather of his first-round clash as rain continued to lash Roland Garros stadium on day two of the claycourt grand slam event.

The Russian looked to be in deep trouble when he let slip a two-set lead before finally advancing 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-7 6-1 over Germany's Tomas Behrend.

Three-times champion Monica Seles was also extended on the slow, damp Roland Garros clay, fighting back from a set down to beat Spaniard Angeles Montolio 6-7 6-3 6-0.

CLAY EXPERTISE

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

"I feel like my game has come a long way," the Briton said after his two hours 10 minutes victory on a sodden showcourt.

"I'll never take winning on clay for granted but I have a different approach these days and it certainly helps me."

Henman was joined in the second round by former champion Carlos Moya and 14th seed Jiri Novak.

Novak beat Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-4 7-6 while Moya, winner here in 1998, beat Paraguay's Ramon Delgado 6-3 6-3 6-2.

Former champion Kafelnikov struggled with his own demons before finally burying Behrend in a match which began on Monday and was carried over because of rain.

"Obviously my form is not as good as I wanted it to be," he said. "But you know, this tournament always brings the best out of me.

"Hopefully it is going to happen again this year."

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

UNFORCED ERRORS

Rain delay meant 28 first-round matches were put back to Wednesday, including the tie between women's third seed Serena Williams and Slovak Martina Sucha.

Men's fourth seed Andre Agassi will also have to wait for Wednesday to start the tournament.

Clijsters struggled from the off on a damp court.

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 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.