Parmar makes it hard for Rosset

British Davis Cup player Arvind Parmar was making a defiant bid to justify his wild card entry in the £508,000 Stella Artois championships at Queen's Club this afternoon.

Parmar, now down to 180th in the world, was ahead 6-5 in the first set against the giant Swiss Marc Rosset when rain halted play in their first round match on the Centre Court.

Parmar had been in difficulties when he dropped his serve to trail 5-4 but he broke back immediately, testing Rosset's control with a backhand passing shot to break point and then seeing his opponent drop serve on a double fault.

Jamie Delgado, another British wild card, lost the first set 6-4 to the American Cecil Mamiit and was ahead 5-4 in the second when play was halted.

Fellow Briton Martin Lee is due on Centre Court later today to take on former champion Mark Philippoussis respectively.

Tim Henman, the second seed who has a bye into the second round, was practising at Queen's this morning.

The British No1, twice a beaten finalist, will play the winner of the first-round match between French teenage sensation Richard Gasquet and South African Neville Godwin.

The tournament has attracted a host of top names, including world No1 Lleyton Hewitt, who is looking to complete a hattrick of Stella titles, British No2 Greg Rusedski and former champions Philippoussis, Todd Martin and Wayne Ferreira.

But out-of-form seven-times Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras is missing the event to play in Germany instead.

Meanwhile, Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, twice a runnerup at Wimbledon, has pulled out of this year's event at SW19 with extreme exhaustion.

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