Rain spoils opening day of Wimbledon

Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis may have got their 2006 Wimbledon campaigns under way, but no matches were completed on day one at the All England Club as play was suspended due to the consistent presence of rain.

Federer, the world No.1 and clear favourite in the men’s draw, opened the Championships with the traditional Centre Court match involving the men’s title holder against rising talent Richard Gasquet of France.

Despite an expected delay due to heavy rain earlier in the morning, play got underway at the scheduled start time and Federer appeared keen to get on top of his 20-year-old opponent from the outset.

Switzerland’s three-time Wimbledon champion got off to a dominant start, taking advantage of Gasquet’s inability to find his range on his groundstrokes to race to an early 3-0 lead.

The single break of the Frenchman’s serve was all Federer needed to take the opening set, before rain stopped play with the Swiss maestro leading 6-3 1-2.

Federer’s compatriot Hingis and women’s second seed Clijsters were the other of the tournament’s big drawcards whose matches were halted by the rain.

Clijsters, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, needed to be on her game from the first point as she faced in-form 21-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva, the champion at the lead-up event at Birmingham.

Belgium’s world No.2 pressured her opponent early and was rewarded with a break of serve in the fifth game to put her up 5-4 and serving for the opening set before play was stopped.

Hingis, who became the youngest champion at the All England Club when she beat Jana Novotna in 1997, also got of to a solid start in her opening round encounter against Olga Savchuk of Ukraine.

The ever-popular Swiss miss showed glimpses of her court-craft on the slick surface to convincingly claim the first set 6-2 before inclement weather suspended play.

While 14 other matches also got underway, the grey skies opened up to give the Championships a thorough drenching that caused a frustrating yet all-too-common rescheduling of play.

Day two will see the recommencement of the 17 suspended matches from the opening day, while four of the six Aussies competing in the singles main draws, including wildcards Mark Philippoussis and Alicia Molik, veteran Wayne Arthurs, and sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt, are also scheduled to make their 2006 Wimbledon debuts.

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