DELRAY BEACH, United States (AFP) - The weather put a damper on the 411,000-dollar ATP tournament here Tuesday, with top-seeded American James Blake among those who had their matches disrupted by rain.

Blake led compatriot Robert Kendrick 3-2 when a fresh outburst of rain halted the match after less than 20 minutes.

The first-round contest was to resume Wednesday, as were matches between third-seeded American Sam Querrey and Russian Yuri Schukin, and sixth-seeded American Vincent Spade and Germany's Denis Gremelmayr.

Earlier on a rainy, blustery day, eighth-seeded Mardy Fish shrugged off a rain delay to beat Italian Marco Crugnola 6-1, 7-5.

Michael Russell beat the rain and fellow American Alex Bogomolov jnr, needing just 49 minutes to Bogomolov 6-1, 6-0, in one of only three matches completed before the rain suspended play in the afternoon.

Russian Igor Kunitsyn defeated German Benjamin Becker 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), and Luxembourg's Gilles Muller posted a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) victory over American wild card Jesse Levine.

Muller recorded his first win on the ATP Tour since last June at Wimbledon.

After helping the United States open defense of its Davis Cup title, Blake is the top seed at this hardcourt event.

Ranked 12th in the world, Blake reached the final here last year, losing to Belgium's Xavier Malisse 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Blake's path was smoothed on Monday when Malisse, a finalist here the past four years, and second-seeded German Tommy Haas, were both upset in the first round.