AUCKLAND, Jan 9: Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanesivic had to battle the rain and a tenacious opponent 11 years his junior before winning his second round clash against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia at the Auckland Open Wednesday.

The second-seeded Ivanesivic, who famously was rescued by rain interruptions during his Wimbledon semifinal victory over Tim Henman, won 4-6 6-3 6-3 against the 19-year-old in a match interrupted by downpours three times.

The rain, that also forced a three-hour delay early in the evening, eventually forced the cancellation of the night matches.

Play had resumed at 9.30pm (08.30 GMT) in the Marat Safin v Jonas Bjorkman tie, with Bjorkman one-up after breaking first seed Safin’s serve in the only game played.

Play lasted another 10 minutes before showers fell again, by which time Bjorkman had taken a 3-1 lead in the first set.

Britain’s Greg Rusedski’s match with Czech Michal Tabara did not resume after the early evening delay.

At the rain break Tabara had won the first set 7-5 and Rusedski had broken Tabara’s serve to be one-up in the only game of the second set.

Ivanesivic said the delays probably helped him more than Youzhny.

Ivanesivic was losing to Briton Henman at Wimbledon last year and had just surrendered the third set 6-0 to fall 2-1 behind when rain halted play on the Friday night.

He returned on the Sunday to clinch the final two sets before going on to clinch the title the following day by beating Australia’s Pat Rafter.

Fifth seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic was first on court after morning rain delayed the start of play for more than two hours and he beat the world’s number 52, Spain’s Fernando Vicente 6-3 6-3.

Novak, a winner here in 1996, admitted he was lucky to survive nine service break points against Vicente.

Novak, who beat Vicente in straight sets at Wimbledon in 2001, said the fast Auckland surface had improved in the six years he has been coming to New Zealand.