The rain that has dogged the early rounds of the French Open proved a god-send for two Australians who used it to their advantage to advance at Roland Garros.

Samantha Stosur pulled herself out of a hole following a weather delay to win through to the third round for the first time with a 6-1 3-6 7-5 victory over Russian Maria Kirilenko.

And Nicole Pratt used the fact her first-round match was delayed by two days to recover from a freak arm injury sufficiently to beat Italy's Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (7-3) 6-2.

Stosur, the No.27 seed, looked by far the better player in the first set and was a break up in the second before the 44th-ranked Russian clawed back into the match.

Rain sent the players running for cover with Stosur holding break point in the third set and she managed to convert after the re-start to draw level at 4-4 before holding on for victory.

"I just took it like any other rain delay and knew that that next point was obviously very important, but if I did lose it, it was only deuce, it wasn't the end of the world," Stosur said.

"I had to come out there full of energy and give it my best and make her come up with good shots to win the game.

"She made an error, then it was back on even terms."

Stosur next meets No.6 seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, Pratt strained an arm muscle in training on Sunday and she was originally scheduled to play on Monday before the weather made a mess of the playing schedule.

"It was really a strange thing, I hit early in the morning and I was pretty cold and I finished the practice and then that afternoon I was swinging the racquet around in my apartment and I couldn't hold the racquet," Pratt said.

"So fortunately the rain definitely helped me and I had a couple of days to rest."

She felt pain in the arm against Pennetta but was hopeful it would be alright when she meets big-hitting No.25 seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the second round on Thursday night Australian time.

Also in action then is No.14 seed Lleyton Hewitt, who plays his second-round match against 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio in the first fixture on centre court.

Earlier, Alicia Molik was bundled out by Russian No.9 seed Anna Chakvetadze, who won their first-round match 6-2 6-3.

Molik, who is continuing her comeback after an ear infection that wrecked her 2005-06 season, will head to Britain to play at Birmingham and Eastbourne in preparation for Wimbledon.

In the men's doubles first round, Jordan Kerr of Australia teamed with the Czech Republic's Tomas Cibulec to beat American Eric Butorac and Briton Jamie Murray 7-6 (10-8) 6-3.

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