Swiss maestro Roger Federer opened his bid for his first French Open title with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over American Michael Russell in a first round match delayed from Monday due to rain.

Federer, who was leading 6-4, 4-1 overnight, needed one hour and 45 minutes to crash his? American opponent, firing six aces and winning 15 out of 21 net approaches on day three at the clay court Grand Slam in Paris.

"I served well and I played well. I didn't give lot of opportunities to my opponent," Federer said. "He is not very tall. And I was able to return his serve and I was able to break him and it was a solid performance. It was not an extraordinary match but it was quite difficult because of the weather conditions.

"It is kind of cool today, windy, been raining the last few days, so we haven't been had much of a chance to hit much tennis balls."

The 25-year-old world number one will be up against French wild card Thierry Ascione, who overcame qualifier Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in 93 minutes.

"I think I played against him once before. I haven't seen him for quite a long time. I don't know where he was. Maybe he took part in other tournaments. But he won convincingly match."

The Swiss is bidding to become the first No. 1 seed to win the Roland Garros title since Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil won his third crown in 2001. He made his first appearance in the French capital as a wild card in 1999 and last year he finished runner-up to Rafael Nadal of Spain in a four-set final.

Two other top 10 players, 7th seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and Spanish 9th seed Tommy Robredo also notched up their weather-hit matches.

Ljubicic avoided his 16th first round exit at a major championship by knocking out French favorite Arnaud Clement 6-1, 7-5, 7-6(2) while the 25-year-old Robredo cruised past Argentine Sergio Roitman 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 56 minutes.

Robredo, the 2003 and 2005 Roland Garros quarterfinalist, will next meet Greek qualifier Konstantinos Economidis, who recorded his first career win at a Grand Slam in three appearances over Chris Guccione of Australia.

A total of 60 men's singles matches were scheduled to be played on Tuesday, after only four first round ties were completed on the first two days.

Tuesday's winners also include Argentine Guillermo Canas, the No.19 seed who beat Federer twice on hard courts in March this year. He made light work of Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 for a place in the second round against Simone Bolelli.

Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seeded 11th, came through one of three all-French first round? matches, when he beat compatriot Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. World number 108 Mahut has now made six successive first round exit at the tournament.

Elsewhere, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, Argentine David Nalbandian, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Russians Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov also scored their opening wins.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2007)