Tim Henman piled on the tension and the excitement as usual as he gave the Centre Court crowd another trademark late-night thriller on the opening day of Wimbledon 2007.

With the clock on the scoreboard twinkling 9.18pm in the Wimbledon gloom, Henman's first-round match against Spain's Carlos Moya was called off for bad light with the score 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2 5-5.

They will come back on Tuesday to finish off three hours and seven minutes of the sort of action which has made Henman such an institution on the lawns of SW19.

He played well to win the first set but after a rain delay struggled and Moya swept through the second and edged a tight third to move in front.

Henman hit back in the fourth to force a decider which he trailed by a break before hitting back to level at 4-4.

He should have won it before the light closed in, spurning four chances on match point in the 10th game. But then with Henman nothing is ever straightforward.

Earlier in a rain-affected day, Roger Federer began the defence of his title with a straight-sets win over Russia's Teimuraz Gabashvili on the roofless Centre Court.

Federer, bidding for a fifth successive title which would match Bjorn Borg's record, won 6-3 6-2 6-4 to set up a second-round meeting with either Italian veteran David Sanguinetti or teenager Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.

Play finally began in SW19 at 1440 BST after a lengthy rain delay.

And Federer wasted little time securing his 29th consecutive win at Wimbledon, needing a shade over 90 minutes to reach the second round.

Andy Roddick also reached the second round with ease, beating Justin Gimelstob in straight sets.

Twice a Wimbledon runner-up, Roddick will face Danai Udomchoke in the next round after his 6-1 7-6 7-5 victory on Court One.

Thailand's Udomchoke reached round two with a 6-4 7-5 6-3 win over Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.

British duo of Joshua Goodall and Jamie Baker both had their matches halted as the light faded on the opening day. Goodall was two sets down to Feliciano Lopez, while Baker had only just begun his clash with Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Former champion Martina Hingis survived a scare against English teenager Naomi Cavaday before securing a 6-7 7-5 6-0 success.

Ninth seed Hingis had to save two match points while serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second set, after Cavaday had saved two set points before dominating the first-set tie-break.

Her match points gone, 18-year-old Cavaday faded fast and Hingis set up a meeting with Aiko Nakamura by winning the next nine games.

New British number one Katie O'Brien was going well against Sandra Kloesel when bad light halted her clash with the Briton 5-3 up in the first set.

Justine Henin, the top seed, had a decent work-out against Jorgelina Cravero of Argentina, who deserved more than the 6-3 6-0 scoreline suggests.

Henin is on course for a potential quarter-final meeting with Serena Williams, who beat Lourdes Dominguez-Lino 7-5 6-0 in her opening match.

Williams, the Wimbledon champion in 2002 and 2003, will next face Australia's Alicia Molik after she defeated Anastassia Rodionova 6-3 6-2.

Patty Schnyder, the 15th seed, was made to work hard for her second-round place by Camille Pin, of France.

Pin was 5-1 up in the final set, but Schnyder hit back to secure a 6-1 4-6 8-6 victory and a meeting with Roberta Vinci, who beat Ashley Harkleroad 6-1 6-2.

Israeli 16th seed Shahar Peer reached round two with a 7-5 6-2 win over Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Peer, who reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and round four at Roland Garros, meets Kaia Kanepi next.

Back in the men's singles, Fernando Gonzalez recovered from a set down to beat Robby Ginepri 3-6 7-6 6-2 6-2 and set up a second-round meeting with Alejando Falla.

Gonzalez, the Australian Open runner-up, was 4-1 down in the second-set tie-break before turning the match on its head.

Philipp Kohlschreiber was the first men's seed to go out, beaten in straight sets by Florent Serra.

The 27th-seeded German was beaten 7-6 6-4 6-4, but there were no such problems for his compatriot Tommy Haas, the 13th seed.

Haas was a 6-4 6-3 6-2 winner over Zack Fleishman of the United States and will meet Tomas Zib in the second round.

Zib saw off the challenge of Argentina's Diego Hartfield in a tough five-setter, coming through 4-6 7-6 3-6 6-3 6-4.

David Ferrer, the 17th seed, joined Haas in the next round with a

6-3 6-3 6-1 win over Sergio Roitman to set up a match against the dangerous Paul-Henri Mathieu.

The Frenchman was a straight-sets winner over Radek Stepanek, winning 7-6 6-2 6-2.