Maria waits as Kuznetsova cruises in Paris rain

Torrential rain washed away top seed Maria Sharapova's eagerly-awaited 2008 French Open bow on Tuesday as Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova sailed into the second round.

Start of play on the third day of the tournament was delayed by almost three hours as Roland Garros was swamped by a deluge which resulted in 20 of the day's scheduled 72 ties being put back to Wednesday.

Sadly for the wet and cold crowd, one of those was Sharapova's match-up against fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina.