Rain falls on Paris Parade

There weren't quite rivers of red clay running down the Allee Suzanne Lenglen, but almost. The rain fell on Roland Garros without respite to wipe the smiles off the most devout tennis fans and wash out the entire schedule for day two of the competition.

The French, particularly the 30,000-plus who bought tickets yesterday, don't take to the rain in the same relentlessly upbeat way that they do at Wimbledon. Still, officials reiterated that they will not be considering putting a roof over the main courts.

"It would not be a good idea. We would remove a major element because players have to also face the weather. We do not wish our tournament to look like the Paris Open," said official Patrice Clerc.

However, judging by the computer images of clouds sweeping in from the Atlantic, it may not yet be the end. The last significant occasion in which the rain had such a devastating effect was in 1973, when the final between Ilie Nastase and Niki Pilic was postponed and played two days later on the Tuesday. Nastase won in three sets.

In the men's singles, which were officially cancelled at 4 p.m. GMT, Andre Agassi, Marcel Rios, Lleyton Hewitt and the current world number one Magnus Norman were all sent back to their hotel suites, not having hit one competitive ball. The women were given a little more time to chill out as the rain became even more defiant, spilling down heavily in the late afternoon.

There was little to compare with the horror on the players' faces as they looked out of the misted lounge windows at the blanket of grey cloud shrouding Paris, save perhaps the reaction to a French journalist who, with espresso in hand, sat down in the American section of the air-conditioned media centre and fired up an unfiltered Marlboro.

Ring-rusty Venus Williams, the fourth seed, was set to face Germany's Jana Kandarr while Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario's game against Bulgaria's Pavlina Nola was also scratched. Fans missed Anna Kournikova's first scheduled appearance, with the matches of fifth seed Conchita Martinez and ninth seed Amanda Coetzer also postponed. In all, 63 matches were wiped out, leaving some time to contemplate the current world number one Magnus Norman, a name scarcely that familiar to the public.

This year the ATP tour has introduced a new system of ranking players, based on the calendar year January to December. Starting the season with zero points, each player competes for ranking points to secure one of eight places in the Tennis Masters Cup, to be held in Lisbon. The player who ends the year with the most points is crowned world number one.

After December, the system begins again from scratch. The intention is to present the game with some clarity, with points to be awarded in 18 events - the four Grand Slams, the nine-event Tennis Masters Series and five-event international series. The Swede (24) has earned more points than either Agassi or Pete Sampras and currently occupies the top position.

"When someone becomes a champion for the first time, people think they have come out of nowhere," said Norman yesterday. "But I won five times last year. I'm not surprised. My coach is not surprised. I don't consider myself the best player in the world. I don't compare with Sampras or Agassi and I haven't won a Grand Slam. But I'm leading the race and that's how I look at it."

But by late afternoon, the weather had darkened Norman's mood.

"Today is my birthday," he said. "I've been here since 9.30 in the morning playing cards and talking in the locker room. I'd hoped to celebrate it a little bit better than this."