With top draw Lleyton Hewitt scheduled to play his opening match in the evening, there was a surprisingly huge turnout at the CCI courts. The organisers were pleased with the response, for once. But then, rain, which has held sway right from the start of the ATP Tour event on Monday, spoilt their party again.

The constant pitter patter came as a real dampener as it forced the late evening matches in the $416,000 Kingfisher Airlines Open to be called off on Wednesday evening. Already hit by rain over the past two days, the organisers will have a tough time to clear the backlog.

Hewitt and his opponent Ti Chen of Taipei were kept waiting in the locker room for well over three hours before the ATP Tour officials made the final call. But before that, sixth-seeded Stefan Koubek spent a little under an hour to dispatch Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-3, 6-2.

The left-handed Austrian carried far too many guns for the little-known Chilean. A semifinalist here last year and a finalist in Chennai at the start of the season, now takes on Bjorn Phau of Germany in the second round.

Equally emphatic in his victory was eighth-seeded Olivier Rochus. The Belgian outclassed Netherlands' Robin Haase 6-2, 6-2.

Earlier, a day after India's top-ranked player Rohan Bopanna bowed out, the country's new sensation followed suit. The 22-year-old Somdev Dev Varman, winner of the NCAA title early this year, went down fighting to Fabio Fognini, losing 3-6, 6-7 (8-10).

Having fought back in brilliant fashion after losing the opening set, Dev Varman looked on course to make a match of it when the match was suspended due to rain in the wee hours of Wednesday with the Indian leading 3-1 and up a break in the second.

But he failed to keep the momentum going when play resumed on Wednesday evening. The spark was missing in Dev Varman's game on the day, going down without a whimper.

Results: Singles (I round): Toshihide Matsui (Jpn) bt Navdeep Singh (Ind) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6); Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt Somdev Dev Varman (Ind) 6-3, 7-6 (10-8); Stefan Koubek (Aut) bt Paul Capdeville (Chi) 6-3, 6-2; Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 2-0 (retd.); Olivier Rochus (Bel) bt Robin Haase (Ned) 6-2, 6-2.

Doubles (I round): Ivan Navarro (Esp)/ Sergio Roitman (Arg) bt Frantisek Cermak/ Leos Friedl (Cze) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4; Patrick Briaud (US)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Jiri Vanek (Cze) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.