It turned out to be third time lucky for Rafael Nadal on Wednesday as the torrential downpours finally relented at the French Open and allowed the three-time champion to complete a belated first-round win.

Nadal, however, made heavy weather of the first set before recording a 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 win over Brazilian qualifier Thomaz Bellucci.

The Spaniard, unbeaten at Roland Garros since making his debut in 2005, had been scheduled to play his match on Monday but had to go back to his hotel without hitting a ball.

He managed to contest only two games on Tuesday before rain again played spoilsport and cut short the day’s action.

Resuming at 1-1 on Wednesday the Spaniard got a nasty surprise when he realised that swirling winds had replaced the rain, creating a sandstorm on Philippe Chatrier Court.

“The conditions are very, very bad today. The winds were terrible on Centre Court,” grumbled Nadal, who will have to be back on Thursday in second-round action.

Nadal was quickly drawn into an 11-minute tussle in the first game after the restart. Try as he might, and despite flexing his bulging muscles between each point, Nadal could not intimidate an opponent making his Grand Slam debut and promptly dropped his serve.

But if Bellucci had started harbouring hopes of causing an upset, they did not last long. Although he never hit top gear during the contest which lasted two hours and 34 minutes in actual court time, Nadal eventually coasted to victory when Bellucci smacked a backhand long.

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