French Open: Heather Watson forced to wait as rain stops play in Paris

When you are used to the heat and the sunshine of Florida it is perhaps no surprise when you struggle in the cold and damp of a European spring. Heather Watson, who has been based in the United States’ sunshine state for more than 10 years, was among those who endured a frustrating time here on the opening day of the French Open.

On a cold and damp day, Watson was at least one of the lucky ones in that she got on to court. Only 10 of the opening day’s scheduled 32 matches were played to a finish, with Watson and Nicole Gibbs among those who will have to return here on Monday to complete their first-round meeting. When play was called off for the day shortly before 6.30pm, Gibbs was leading her doubles partner 7-5, 2-6, 2-1 and serving at 40-30.

Court 3 was sparsely populated when the match started five hours earlier in the afternoon. Although the conditions were clearly the same for both players, Watson appeared the unhappier of the two women. Rain started falling midway through the first set, which the Briton let slip from her grasp, though she recovered well to level the match by taking the second set. In the decider, nevertheless, Watson was a break down and complaining to the umpire about the slippery surface when they left the court for the last time.

Watson thinks she may need to win at least one match here to secure her place in the Olympics this summer. The field for Rio will be decided by the world rankings at the end of this tournament. A place in the world’s top 60 should be good enough for Watson, who is currently at No 54 but would be in danger of slipping down the rankings if she failed to defend the points she won by reaching the second round here last year.

Gibbs had won her only previous encounter with Watson. It was clear from the start that many of the rallies would be long and punishing. Both women are good athletes, capable of chasing down ball after ball, yet both lack the firepower to outhit their opponents, especially on a clay-court in desperately slow conditions. It was no surprise when they occasionally resorted to moonballing.

Gibbs in particular defended superbly. There were many points which Watson dominated but lost as the American kept making her opponent hit the extra ball. Even when at full stretch chasing balls into the corners, the world No 72 regularly hit excellent defensive lobs.

Watson made the first break of serve to go 3-1 up, but Gibbs broke back immediately. When the American broke to lead 5-4 it was Watson’s turn to respond in kind, only to drop her own serve again to give Gibbs another chance to serve out for the match. This time she held firm, Watson’s netted backhand handing her the set after 57 minutes.

By now Watson was clearly unhappy with the conditions. Although she held serve in the opening game of the second set, her growing frustrations became evident in the second game. With Gibbs serving at 30-40 Watson missed an easy kill with a forehand, put a routine smash into the net and then missed another forehand to hand the American the game.

Nevertheless, Watson was leading 3-2 when they came off court just before 3pm as rain began to fall more heavily. When they resumed nearly three hours later the Briton came out with a much more positive attitude, which brought an instant reward. Attacking the net when she had the opportunity, Watson won the first three games on the resumption to take the second set.

By the time Watson held serve in the opening game of the decider it was raining again. In the third game she was broken when she missed a volley and Gibbs was one point away from taking a 3-1 lead when play was halted again. They are scheduled to return to Court 3 on Monday after Grigor Dimitrov’s meeting with Viktor Troicki.

Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had been the first winner of the fortnight, beating Spain’s Sara Sorribes 6-2, 6-0. Meanwhile Petra Kvitova opened the tournament on Court Philippe Chatrier and went close to becoming its first significant loser before beating Danka Kovinic 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. Kovinic, who last year became the first player representing Montenegro to win a singles match at a Grand Slam tournament, recovered from a slow start but lost a hard-fought deciding set.

Lucie Safarova, last year’s runner-up here, has had a miserable time of late, having fought a bacterial infection which kept her out of the Australian Open. However, returning here seems to have given the Czech a much-needed boost. She won her opening match against Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko 6-0, 6-2.

Kyle Edmund’s meeting with Nikoloz Basilashvili was one of the scheduled matches which never made it on to the court. They will try again on Monday, though the weather forecast is for more of the same cold and wet weather. Andy Murray’s meeting with Radek Stepanek is also scheduled for the second day, but as the fourth match on Court Philippe Chatrier it may well have to be held over.