Friday, June 2 2006 15:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: Birthday girl Justine Henin-Hardenne and Lleyton Hewitt moved into the French Open third round on Thursday as rain and gloom descended upon Roland Garros for the second successive day.

Belgium's Henin-Hardenne, the fifth seed and defending champion, celebrated her 24th birthday in miserable weather conditions as she laboured to beat Anastasia Yakimova of Belarus 6-2, 7-5.

She next plays Tathiana Garbin of Italy, the woman who dethroned her the season after when she won her first title here in 2003.

"I don't remember a day like this before when I played under the rain and I was freezing," she said after the match played in temperatures which just hovered above the 10-degree mark.

"It was very cold and I had to put on long sleeves in the second set. It was like being in Belgium in November," he said.

A two-hour rain interruption meant that defending men's champion Rafael Nadal was unable to get on court for his second round match against American lucky loser Kevin Kim.

That was put back to Friday along with Martina Hingis's encounter with Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic.

Five other second round matches were suspended because of poor light with Russian women's sixth seed Elena Dementieva the happiest to see the locker room after slipping to 1-5 down against Ukrainian teenager Viktoriya Kutuzova.

Hewitt and former women's champion Anastasia Myskina had safely negotiated their second round encounters before the weather turned.

Hewitt, the 14th seed, overcame a difficult first set before seeing off French wildcard Mathieu Montcourt 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 and now faces Slovakian 22nd seed Domimik Hrbaty for a place in the last 16.

The 25-year-old Australian played his first clay court match in two years in Austria last week, lost in the first round and suffered an ankle injury.

But after saving a set point in the 10th game on Thursday, Hewitt was never really troubled by an opponent ranked 213 in the world and who was playing in his first tour event.

"It was a tough first set," said Hewitt.

"I knew nothing about him before the match so it took time to work him out. But once I got the first set under my belt, I got better as the match went on," he said.

Myskina, the 2004 winner who suffered the embarrassment of becoming the first defending women's champion to be knocked out in the first round 12 months later, eased past Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-2, 6-4.

The Russian tenth seed now takes on Serbian 19th seed Ana Ivanovic who beat Emilie Loit of France 6-1, 6-1 for a place in the fourth round.

Ivanovic reached the quarter-finals here in 2005 accounting for Amelie Mauresmo in the process.

Two men's seeds were knocked out.

Argentinian qualifier Martin Vassallo Arguello accounted for the 21st seed, Sebastien Grosjean of France, 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Marcos Baghdatis, the 19th seeded Cypriot, who made the Australian Open final in January, lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 to Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

"It's been tough for me since Australia," said crowd-pleaser Baghdatis, explaining that he was struggling to cope with the expecation built up by his run to the final in Melbourne.

"There are a lot of questions in my head, a lot of doubts."

Croatian fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic beat Spanish qualifier Oscar Hernandez 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 6-2 and now faces French teenager Gael Monfils, the 25th seed, who won a thrilling 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-0, 7-5 win against Belgian Dick Norman.

Fellow 19-year-old Novak Djokovic also went through seeing off Chilean ninth seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1. The Serbian now meets German 23rd seed Tommy Haas.

Tommy Robredo, the Spanish seventh seed, went through beating Serbian qualifier Ilia Bozoljac 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and now faces Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.

Britain's interest in the tournament ended when Tim Henman was knocked out by Russian 31st seed Dmitry Tursunov. Henman went down 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in a match held over from Wednesday.

It was his third successive loss to Tursunov in the last three Grand Slam tournaments.