French Open: Rain continues to disrupt play at Roland Garros

The weather in Paris has been awful

People wait on the Philippe Chatrier central court as rain stops play on day five of the French (GETTY IMAGES)

Bad weather continued to blight the French Open as play was called off for rain around an hour and a half into the day's schedule in Paris.

It has been unseasonably cool throughout the week and four hours were lost to rain on Tuesday, although a largely dry day yesterday at least allowed the first round to be completed.

But heavy rain forced players from the courts around 12.30pm today and the forecast for the rest of the day was not particularly promising.

Two second-round matches were completed, with 18th seed Jelena Jankovic defeating promising Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-3 6-0 while China's Zheng Jie was a 6-3 6-1 winner over American Melanie Oudin.

Jankovic won 12 games in a row after losing the first three and she tipped 19-year-old Muguruza for a bright future.

The Serb said: "I think she's a great up-and-coming player. She hits the ball very hard, very flat. And, especially in the beginning of the match, she gave me a lot of trouble.

"It was not easy playing against such a player that plays like that. All I can say, I think she has a great future ahead of her.

"I started playing much better after being down 3-0 and I took control and I felt much more comfortable on the court. I figured out the way to play against her and I think I did pretty well."

Meanwhile, Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber was handed a walkover when his opponent Lu Yen-hsun pulled out with an ankle injury.

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova were among the players left waiting in the locker room for the weather to relent, with all three scheduled to play later today.

Although the skies remained very dark, the rain did ease and the players returned to court after a break of around an hour and three quarters.

Ninth seed Sam Stosur was keen to get back off court as soon as possible and wasted no time wrapping up a 6-4 6-3 win over Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic before the rain again began to fall.

Stosur, who will meet Jankovic next, is regarded as a particularly dangerous player on clay and reached the French Open final in 2010.

But it has not always been like that, and the Australian said: "I didn't play on clay at all until I was 15.

"I went on a junior trip to Europe, and we had five weeks, I think, on clay. I didn't win a match and I hated every second of it.

"So I certainly didn't like it those first few years when I played because simply I had no idea what I was doing. And I wasn't as consistent as I am now. But probably the last five years I have really enjoyed it."

The latest rain delay lasted approximately an hour and a half, with play resuming just before 4pm.

Grigor Dimitrov had been only two games away from victory over French teenager Lucas Pouille when the rain came and he quickly finished things off, winning 6-1 7-6 (7/4) 6-1.

The Bulgarian 26th seed is likely to play world number one Novak Djokovic in the third round in a repeat of their meeting in Madrid earlier this month, which Dimitrov won.

PA