Roundup: Wawrinka pushed to five sets as rain delays day 2 competitions at Roland Garros

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka and world No. 2 Andy Murray were both troubled in their respective first round matches on Monday, when the day two competitions at Roland Garros were delayed by rain.

Third-seeded Wawrinka, who arrived in Paris just Saturday evening after winning at the Geneva Open, twice came back from a set down before edging 59th-ranked Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The 31-year-old Swiss admitted after the match that he wasn't playing his best tennis but joked around when asked whether he was aware that no defending champion had ever lost in the first round at Roland Garros.

"No," replied a chuckling Wawrinka, who had waited for two and a half hours before the weather condition turned better to play. "And it's still not the case, so it's good."

Something similar transpired several hours later when Andy Murray faced an even greater deficit, dropping the first two sets against 128th-ranked qualifier Radek Stepanek, who at 37 is the oldest man in the field.

After the net-charging Stepanek raced to a 6-3, 6-3 lead, his legs began to falter, and Murray started to work his way back into the match, taking the third set 6-0 and was up a break at 4-2 in the fourth set when their match was suspended until Tuesday due to darkness.

The Scot pulled off the clay-court title of Rome Masters just eight days ago.

In other plays at the central court of Philippe Chatrier, Japan' s fifth seed Kei Nishikori eased into the second round with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy as their match resumed after rain stopped it on Monday.

On women's part, second seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland brushed aside Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-0, 6-2.

Rain delayed two games involving Chinese Wang Qiang and Zheng Saisai, while another Chinese Zhang Shuai's clash against 687-ranked Galina Voskoboeva was tied at 5-5 in the first set.

"When you go through two days like this, you realize the importance of having a roof over your courts," said the tournament director Guy Forget at a press conference earlier on Monday.

The 51-year-old former captain of France's Davis Cup team promised that the roof for Court Philippe Chartier would be all set by 2020.

"While Wimbledon, Melbourne, and New York now have the new roof, we'll have to wait until 2020 to have ours," said Forget. Enditem