Venus, Davydenko beat their rivals and the rain

Michael Russell of the US returns the ball to Switzerland's Roger federer during their first round match at the French Open at the Roland Garros in Paris on Monday. PHOTO: AP

It was a case of better late than never for Venus Williams and Nikolay Davydenko when the pair made the most of a short dry spell to sneak into the second round of the French Open on Monday.

Rain down over Roland Garros for the second day running and Williams capitalized on the 90-minute window to overcome rising French prospect Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-3 while Davydenko demolished Italian Stefano Galvani 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

Williams expected to face Cornet on Sunday but instead twiddled her thumbs in the locker room as drizzle washed away most of the opening day's schedule.

After enduring a further three-hour delay on Monday, the American took out her frustration on her 17-year-old opponent.

Playing front of a smattering of fans, Williams survived four games going against the serve and took the first set with a stinging crosscourt winner.

Cornet, ranked 118th in the world and without a title to her name, was not expected to pose much of a threat to the five-times grand slam champion.

Once she lost a chance to go 3-2 up with a break in the second set, her hope of pulling off an upset evaporated into the grey clouds hanging over Center Court.

Meanwhile, Davydenko wrapped up his win just in time after a stressful morning.

As rain began to beat down on the red clay, 117th ranked Galvani tossed a forehand wide to hand the Russian victory.

"At 4-1 [in the third], I was thinking to myself `I need to break, break, break or play faster because the rain was coming.' I didn't want to stop and end up needing one more game [for victory]."

The Russian said he had also faced a few jittery moments in the morning when he was stuck in traffic en route to Roland Garros and would have turned up late if his match had started as scheduled at 11am.

World No. 1 Roger Federer was 6-4, 4-1 up over US journeyman Michael Russell in his first round tie before play was finally called off for the day around 6pm.

Only matches have been completed over the first two days of the claycourt grand slam, giving organizers a scheduling headache for the first week of the tournament.