The second day of the US Open was washed out, with only one hour of play in a day dominated by heavy rain.

Players were kept off court for three and half hours at the start of the day, thanks to the torrential downpour sweeping through the New York area. Once on the court, the players wasted no time to start hitting the balls.

China's Li Na, the 24th seed in the grand slam event, led her first round match against Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 4-3 until the game was halted by the resumption of the heavy showers.

Apparently unaffected by the injury she suffered at the US Open tune-up in New Haven, Li broke Lorenzo's service twice. But also she lost two of her own services to the world number 95 Spaniard.

Women's top seed Amelie Mauresmo shrugged off the gathering gloom to bolt out into a 4-1 lead against Germany qualifier Kristina Barrios before the skies opened again and sent them scurrying for shelter.

They were back 20 minutes later with Mauresmo wrapping up the set 6-1.

But with her right thigh heavily strapped and looking rusty after a long layoff following her Wimbledon triumph in July, the world No.1 started to struggle in the second set and was 5-2 down when the rain came down again.

By 23:00 GMT, there was still no sign of the rain relenting and most of the day's scheduled games were called off although play had not yet been abandoned for the day.

In other games that saw the light of day, 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt, who has struggled all year with injuries, was level 5-5 with Spain's Albert Montanes and French hope Gael Monfils took the first set 6-2 against American qualifier Michael Russell.

Monday's opening day was also hit with a 90 minutes delay at the start of the programme before the players finally managed to get on court.
 
(AFP August 30, 2006)