Nadal wants fourth French Open 'more than Wimbledon'

Rafael Nadal has come close to winning Wimbledon in the last two years, but the Spaniard says retaining his French Open crown remains his highest priority. The king of clay, who arrived yesterday for the Rome Masters fresh from his latest win in Barcelona, will go to France in just over a fortnight aiming to win at Roland Garros for a fourth year in succession.

"Obviously I would love to win them both," Nadal said when asked if he would prefer to win in Paris or at Wimbledon. "But if I had to sign for one now, I suppose I would say Roland Garros because I have won there before and want to keep that going."

For the moment the world No 2's target is a fourth successive title here, which would dovetail with his first two tournaments of the clay-court season. Having won his fourth Monte Carlo title in a row, Nadal secured his fourth successive Barcelona triumph on Sunday by beating David Ferrer. It was his 103rd victory in 104 matches on clay.

The tournament here is the second of three Masters Series events in four weeks. Nadal, who played in Barcelona in the spare week of that sequence, said it would be "totally impossible" for any player to be at their best four weeks in a row.

The 21-year-old, who is due to play his first match here tomorrow, against either Nicolas Kiefer or Juan Carlos Ferrero, said: "I know I have been complaining about the schedule but there is nothing we can do for this year. The players are united so hopefully we can do something in the future."

With rain disrupting yesterday's opening day Andy Murray was one of those who had to wait to see if his match would even get on court. The British No 1 was due to play in the fourth match on Court One, against Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro, but by late afternoon the second match was still in progress as Guillermo Canas took three sets to dispose of Gianluca Naso. Canas now plays Roger Federer, whom he beat twice last year.

The first two matches on the show courts produced surprises. Richard Gasquet, France's world No 9, lost 6-4, 6-1 to Luis Horna, the No 111, and Ivan Ljubicic was beaten 7-5, 7-6 by Steve Darcis. Ljubicic is having a mediocre season. The world No 3 two years ago, he has dropped to No 29 and looks a shadow of the player who led Croatia to the Davis Cup in 2005.

Darcis, 23, has climbed to No 49, thanks largely to two unlikely tournament victories. In July last year he qualified for the second ATP event of his career, at Amersfoort in the Netherlands, and won the title by beating Marc Gicquel, Gilles Simon, Igor Andreev, Mikhail Youhzny and Werner Eschauer. At No 297, he was the lowest-ranked winner of the year. Three months ago the Belgian beat three higher-ranked men in Memphis, where he beat Robin Soderling in the final.