Rain suspends play at French Open

PARIS, May 28 (Reuters) Rain played spoilsport at the French Open for the second day running when a torrential downpour forced a premature end to the tennis today.

Steady drizzle washed away all but seven of the scheduled 24 matches yesterday and with only six matches completed on day two of the claycourt grand slam, organisers will struggle to clear the first-round backlog.

Venus Williams and men's fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko began their matches after a three-hour delay and managed to squeeze into the second round before another downpour greeted the fans at Roland Garros.

Williams beat rising French talent Alize Cornet 6-4 6-3 on Centre Court while Russian Davydenko was a 6-3 6-1 6-1 winner over Italian Stefano Galvani on court one.

Following another short disruption, world number one Roger Federer streaked ahead 6-4 4-1 against American journeyman Michael Russell when yet another deluge forced the players to scurry back into the locker room.

Seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic, aiming to win a match at a grand slam for the first time since reaching the third round at Wimbledon last year, had a 6-1 4-4 cushion over France's Arnaud Clement on Suzanne Lenglen court.

More showers are forecast for the rest of the week.

REUTERS KK BD2334