Tennis: Serena survives, Safin throws in towel, rain ends play

7.45am - By OSSIAN SHINE

LONDON - Rain caused the early abandonment of play at Wimbledon today, the second day of the tennis championships.

Players were called off the courts after rain started falling at around 1610 GMT (4.10am NZT) and play was finally abandoned at 1800 GMT (6am NZT) after weather forecasters predicted heavier rain for the early evening.

Play was stopped four times yesterday and organisers lost nearly three hours of first-round action.

Showers were predicted for the first two days of the championship with the forecast no better until midweek.

Champion Serena Williams clambered clumsily over her first hurdle, Tim Henman survived an early scare but moody Russian Marat Safin plumbed new Wimbledon depths on Tuesday before vowing to give up on the grand slam.

The former world number one admitted throwing in the towel during his 4-6 7-5 6-3 7-6 loss to fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov, a display which caused former Russian president Boris Yeltsin to stalk away from court two after the second set.

"I give up on Wimbledon," the 19th seed said. "Is definitely not the tournament for me. I give up on spending time on these courts... I hate. I hate this. I have to admit it.

"It's like a nightmare for me. So after a while, I just get bored. I lost completely motivation, and I give up."

"I try to be serious... I came here one week before, and I was practising quite a lot.

"I spend a lot of time on the courts. I didn't go out last night, and I didn't had fun. I was trying to prepare myself and try to give myself another chance. But I think it's the last one."

While Safin moodily departed the All England Club, women's champion Serena Williams bristled at suggestions she had not been at her best during her 6-3 6-1 win over Zheng Jie.

The American's last match on grass was in the final here last year when she beat elder sister Venus. She missed the rest of that season with a knee injury and returned from an eight-month lay-off in Miami in March.

The rust from that enforced lay-off was still evident on Tuesday and her movement was not as slick as it might have been but it was enough to see off 52nd-ranked Zheng.

"I wanted to try out some things and the first round is the time to do them," she said when quizzed about the 24 unforced errors she made.

"I am playing good... you never hear me say I am playing good so that is pretty bold and confident for me to say that.

"Honestly, I think (that was) one of the few times I think I did pretty decent."

When pressed by reporters about the high number of errors, she snapped: "Well, I'm going to come in here, you guys are going to coach me now? You guys are going to be coaches now? You're going to talk about unforced errors?

"Feel free to come out on the practice court if you guys want to help out."

Henman also admitted to frustration during his 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-2 win over Wimbledon debutant Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo, but unlike Safin the Briton refused to give up.

"I definitely got a little bit frustrated at times on the court," he said. "There were some positives aspects and there were a few aspects that I was struggling with.

"But I think upon reflection, having got off the court and obviously won and got through a difficult match, I didn't play my best today.

"You look at some of my past Wimbledons, the first round has not always been the easiest or the most straightforward.

"But in this tournament you only get one chance, don't you? You've got to find a way to win... I was able to do that. That's a big positive.

"I think in the past perhaps I could get a little bit too frustrated. Sure, I was frustrated today. But I never felt like the result was going to be in doubt."

Mark Philippoussis will have been mightily relieved to be back at Wimbledon. The Australian, runner-up here last year, notched his first tournament match win since January when he beat Belgian qualifier Christophe Rochus 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Philippoussis had gone seven tournaments without a victory coming into the grasscourt grand slam, including an embarrassing first round defeat at Queen's Club by British world number 866 Ian Flanagan.

Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva suffered a shock first round exit, falling 6-4 1-6 6-4 to Sandra Kleinova of the Czech Republic.

Kleinova, ranked 129, had never won a match in the main draw at Wimbledon before and was hampered by a knee injury for much of the match but she battled through the pain to beat the out-of-sorts French Open runner-up.

- REUTERS