Sixth seed Andy Roddick overcame a lengthy delay, two further rain breaks and the loss of a set to move into the third round of the French Open.
Sixth seed drops second set before scrambling through
Sixth seed Andy Roddick overcame a lengthy delay, two further rain breaks and the loss of a set to move into the third round of the French Open.
The American, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Roland Garros, defeated Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-3 5-7 6-4 6-2 and will next face Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili.
The pair traded a remarkable 17 breaks of serve on Court Suzanne Lenglen before the experience of the former US Open champion proved decisive.
In a match held up by four-and-a-half hours owing to the weather, the first rain break came at 5-5 in the second set and when play resumed Kavcic won eight consecutive points to level the match.
But Roddick asserted early in the third and then won four games in succession to close out the match in the fourth.
"It was brutal for me out there," admitted the American. "I couldn't get my serve to go anywhere and the ball was just sitting up.
"I woke up this morning, looked out my window, and knew that it was gonna be a long one."
Fellow American John Isner made the most of his big serve to see off the challenge of Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli 6-7 7-6 7-6 6-4.
Dashed
The 17th seed resumed the match a set down but reeled off the next three, albeit breaking his opponent only once.
And French hopes were dashed when crowd favourite Gael Monfils lost his controversially delayed second round match against Fabio Fognini.
The Italian had spurned three match points in near-darkness on Wednesday night before play was finally suspended with the score 5-5 in the fifth set.
But Fognini held his nerve to break the 13th-seed in the 15th game following the resumption and then served out for the match, winning 2-6 4-6 7-5 6-4 9-7.
A total of 16 singles matches had to be postponed owing to the rain that fell for much of the afternoon, with Rafa Nadal and Serena Williams all delayed until Friday.
