US Open Tennis

On a third consecutive damp, chilly day at the French Open, top-ranked Roger Federer endured two rain delays while beating Alejandro Falla 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round Wednesday.

The two delays totaled 1 hour, 31 minutes, while the match lasted only 1 hour, 26 minutes.

“I’m happy to get through,” Federer said. “It’s not easy to come on and off. You always hope your game is still there and it hasn’t left you.”

Federer shanked forehands on two match points in the final game before closing out the victory to improve to 40-3 this year. He never lost his serve, won 55 of 68 service points and finished with 41 winners to 13 for Falla.

A Colombian ranked 139th, Falla lost in qualifying and made the draw only because another player pulled out. He now has the distinction of losing to Federer at two major events _ their only previous meeting came in the second round at Wimbledon in 2004.

Federer is bidding for his fourth consecutive Grand Slam title at the only major event he has yet to win.

“I would like to win here,” he said. “The pressure is quite big. I enjoy the challenge.”

Temperatures were in the 50s for a second successive day, and because of rain, one match took seven hours to complete. No. 13 Nicolas Kiefer finally beat 29-year-old wild-card Marc Gicquel of France 6-0, 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 11-9.

The weather failed to faze No. 4-seeded Maria Sharapova, who wore long sleeves and beat Iveta Benesova 6-4, 6-1.

“It’s sunny, and five minutes later it gets dark and windy,” Sharapova said. “You just have to adjust and be patient.”

Sharapova, recovering from an ankle injury she aggravated last week, moved well on the center-court clay.

“It was a lot better than my previous match,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was moving great still, being cautious with the tape on, but pain-wise it felt a lot better.”

No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko beat the rain and became the first man to reach the third round when Flavio Saretta retired with the flu trailing 6-2, 4-1.

“I couldn’t run anymore,” Saretta said.

Davydenko played well from the beginning despite an 11 a.m. start.

“It looks like you’re sleeping on the court the first few games because this was too early,” Davydenko said.

Another Russian, No. 14-seeded Dinara Safina, beat Hana Sromova 6-0, 6-2. Safina hit 31 winners, including six aces.

“I can say it was an easy match today,” Safina said. “I was pretty solid.”

Safina’s older brother, two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin, was fined $10,000 Wednesday for failing to hold a post-match news conference after losing in the opening round to Fernando Gonzalez.

Two French teenagers advanced on the women’s side. Aravane Rezai, a 19-year-old qualifier, rallied to upset No. 22 Ai Sugiyama 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“This is a fabulous moment for me,” said Rezai, who is ranked 142nd. “I was playing a match on Court Suzanne Lenglen with a lot of pressure. I started to recover at the end of the second set.”

Her compatriot, 16-year-old Alize Cornet, beat 32-year-old Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the completion of a suspended match.

“When I realized I was playing someone who was twice my age, it’s true that it was quite funny,” Cornet said.

No. 24 Katarina Srebotnik beat Ashley Harkleroad 6-3, 6-2, leaving three Americans in the women’s draw.

No. 25 Marion Bartoli and No. 27 Anna Chakvetadze were eliminated. Jelena Jankovic rallied past Bartoli 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, while Li Na beat Chakvetadze 7-5, 6-3.

No. 16 Nicole Vaidisova swept Sun Tiantian 6-1, 6-3. No. 17 Flavia Pennetta defeated Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-0 in 52 minutes.

Davydenko takes a seven-match winning streak into his next match against No. 30 Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion, who held every service game and beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

“I know that I’m not a favorite here,” the 29-year-old Moya said. “That changes things for you, because you’re not under so much pressure. I think I’ve still got good tennis to play. … Playing Davydenko is going to show me where I stand.”

The French Open is the cruelest Grand Slam tournament for Andy Roddick, the toughest for all U.S. men over the years, really. Toss in a bum ankle, and Roddick never really stood a chance this time.

He quit Tuesday because of his injury while trailing Alberto Martin of Spain, 6-4, 7-5, 1-0, in the first round at Roland Garros, and the fifth-seeded American hobbled off the court to a chorus of full-throated boos and whistles.

His exit, combined with that of No. 17 Robby Ginepri, left the United States with only two men in the second round at the French Open for just the second time since 1967.

Unlike the hard courts at the U.S. Open — which Roddick won in 2003 — or the grass at Wimbledon — where he’s been the runner-up twice — the red clay at the French Open hampers rather than helps Roddick’s strengths: his serve and forehand.

Clay also makes for longer points and requires plenty of good footwork, and Roddick sprained ligaments in his left ankle last week. He tweaked it in the eighth game against Martin, who’s ranked 68th, had lost his previous five matches at majors, and entered 0-4 vs. Roddick.

The ankle got worse when Roddick tried to cut back for a lob in the second set’s 11th game, which he closed with a double fault to fall behind, 6-5.

“I was definitely tentative sliding around out there,” Roddick said. “It started affecting the way I landed on my serve. You know, not much else was working besides my serve. It was a lost cause, I think.”

He double-faulted twice starting the third set, and hit a ball into the 20th row of the stands. After losing the game at love on a forehand that sailed five feet long, Roddick sat in his sideline chair. He removed his left shoe, sock and ankle brace, and called for a trainer.

“What do you think?” Roddick asked. “Do you think it’s dangerous?”

He decided to stop, the chair umpire informed the crowd, and Roddick walked off to a nasty serenade, his career mark at the French Open now 4-6, including three first-round departures.

Martina Hingis knows quite well how unforgiving the French Open fans can be: She sobbed after being harangued for disputing calls during her infamous loss to Steffi Graf in the 1999 final. Tuesday, Hingis dispatched Lisa Raymond, 6-2, 6-2, in her first Roland Garros match since 2001.

Two seeded players in her half of the draw were sent home: No. 3 Nadia Petrova, twice a semifinalist in Paris, was upset, 6-2, 6-2, by Akiko Morigami of Japan, and No. 23 Tatiana Golovin lost, too. Otherwise, form pretty much held, with two-time champion Justine Henin-Hardenne and 2004 champion Anastasia Myskina winning in straight sets.

Most of the seeded men fared OK, too, including No. 9 Fernando Gonzalez, who beat two-time major champion Marat Safin, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.

The men’s seeded losers were No. 18 Thomas Johansson, Roddick and Ginepri, a semifinalist at the 2005 U.S. Open. Roddick and Ginepri joined countrymen Paul Goldstein, Vince Spadea and Justin Gimelstob on the sideline.

Left among U.S. men? No. 8 James Blake (who faces clay-court expert Nicolas Almagro) and Kevin Kim (vs. defending champion Rafael Nadal).