Switzerland's Ivo Heuberger has been knocked out in the first round of the rain-hit Swiss Open in Gstaad. He lost to France's Sébastien Grosjean 3-6, 4-6.

Heuberger was the only Swiss player to see any action as rain took centre stage for most of Wednesday.

The biggest shock among the five other matches which were completed was the defeat of the number three seed, Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero. He went out in straight sets to the Argentinian, Gaston Gaudio.

Another Spaniard, the defending champion Albert Costa fared better, but he needed three sets to overcome Austria's Stefan Koubek, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The second seed, Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, had to endure a three-hour interruption because of the weather in his opening match before beating Spain's Alex Calarava 6-3, 7-6.

In other first round action, France's Jerome Golmard needed three sets to get past the French qualifier Nicolas Thomann 4-6, 6-2,6-4, and Max Mirnyi of Belarus also took three sets to overcome Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Steady rain prevented play getting underway until mid-afternoon. Organisers had hoped to reschedule 14 singles matches during the day, but nine first round matches have still not started.

Monday's play was completely washed out and only two matches were completed on Tuesday. Similar weather conditions have been forecast for both Thursday and Friday.

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