Third seed Marin Cilic powers past James Duckworth

The third seed did not have things all his own way as he was forced to come through three tight sets, but the match was over in just two hours and 13 minutes.

Duckworth was slow to settle and Cilic was able to canter to the opening set with just three games going against him.

But to the Australian's credit he made life much more difficult for his opponent thereafter.

"It's not often we play in the rain, so it was a bit different... the balls were a little bit heavier, a little bit different, but that's the special thing about the French Open," Cilic told the Philippe Chatrier court after his win.

Cilic won the second set after breaking from 5-5 and had to come through a tie-break to close out the match.

The Croat will next take on Hubert Hurkacz in the second round with the Pole ranked at number 188 in the world.