KEY POINTS:
Play was halted by rain less than 90 minutes after it started at the French Open early this morning.
Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo was 7-5 2-2 up against Ukraine's Olga Savchuk in her tournament opener on Centre Court, where three-times defending champion Rafael Nadal was scheduled next against Brazilian
qualifier Thomaz Bellucci.
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded fourth, and Dinara Safina both recorded first-round victories before play was stopped at 0117NZT.
Play started after a delay of almost three hours because of rain showers and only 25 out of 56 first-round matches were completed on Monday.
New Zealand number one Marina Erakovic endured an excruciating wait for the chance to notch a victory on her grand slam debut at Roland Garros in Paris.
Erakovic led Italian Tathiana Garbin 5-3 in a deciding third set when rain halted her match.
But the match was not scheduled for an immediate resumption on court four overnight, instead being slotted in after a first-round men's singles match between Finland's Jarkko Nieminen and Spaniard Marc Lopez.
Erakovic dropped the first set against Garbin in a tiebreaker but rode a dominant serve to claim the second 6-3 and then pull within a game of closing out the match and setting up a second-round meeting with third seed Jelana Jankovic.
Garbin was to serve to stay in the match when it eventually resumed.
A first-round win would give Erakovic 60 WTA ranking points and would take her close to breaking into the world's top 70 for the first time.
Erakovic's coach, Michael Schapers, felt the break would help her after the divided opening sets.
"The conditions were tough and the court was slowing down, which is not good for Marina's game," he said. "I think what you've seen in the match is both players like to dominate with the forehand and I will give her a few pointers so if she gets chances with the forehand she can use a bit more variation, and she just has to go out and go for it."
Meanwhile, Roger Federer made a winning return to the French Open, the only Grand Slam title that has eluded him.
Top-ranked Federer beat Sam Querrey of the United States 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 yesterday in the first round at Roland Garros, where the 12-times major champion is trying to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
Federer was broken once early in the first set, but he managed to win five times on Querrey's serve.
"Once I got settled I played a little bit more better," he said. "I was able to create myself a few opportunities against his serve, which was sort of good ... give me a few days now again to practise, and hopefully I can play a bit better the next match."
Federer has played well on clay this season, despite losing seven times this year - more than he lost in the entire season in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
He won his only title of the year on clay in Estoril, Portugal, when Nikolay Davydenko retired from the final with a leg injury. He then reached the final at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Hamburg Masters, losing both times to Rafael Nadal.
"I've played well all clay-court season long," Federer said. "Didn't have many hiccups really, and I have plenty of matches. That was my goal as well. By playing Estoril, I was hoping to get that before Paris."
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AP, REUTERS