Sport | Tennis
Rain plays havoc with Dubai Open schedule
Intermittent rain throughout the day forced the suspension of all four quarterfinals at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open on Thursday.
- By Alaric Gomes, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
Dubai: Intermittent rain throughout the day forced the suspension of all four quarterfinals at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open on Thursday.
After waiting for a respite from the downpour, organisers had to finally reschedule the order of play, bringing Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova on to the Centre Court around 6.45pm.
And the two-time Dubai champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne, was to play Francesca Schiavone on Court 1.
However, exactly an hour later, the skies opened up yet again, forcing the players to run for cover. Mauresmo, who is looking for a fourth straight title this season, was leading 3-2 in the first set tie-breaker when play was interrupted.
Last Sunday, Mauresmo had won the crown in Antwerp, thereby becoming the fastest woman ever to earn $1 million (Dh3.7 million) in a season's earnings.
Earlier yesterday, the Frenchwoman looked a bit rusty against Kuznetsova as the Russian broke her in the second game and held serve for a 3-0 lead.
However, Mauresmo waited patiently, pushing in every ball that came her way and forcing Kuznetsova into making several unforced errors and a double-fault in the fifth game. Soon, the Frenchwoman forced a 3-3 tie.
Kuznetsova got another break, two games later, for a 5-3 lead, but the Russian runner-up here in 2004 blew away the advantage and Mauresmo broke her a second time to level at 5-5. Both players then held their serves, pushing the set into the tie-breaker.
Kuznetsova tried very hard to get winners on each shot, but was found trailing her French opponent when rain intervened.
Earlier in the day, the tournament committee was kept busy trying to work out a schedule to ensure a smooth run of matches. But the drizzle put paid to the mopping up operations carried out by the volunteers. There was water on the courts due to overnight rain and the drying up operation began for the first time at 10am. But, by 11.15am the skies had opened up again.
Justine Henin-Hardenne, who had a scheduled practice session on Centre Court in the morning, had to wait till the evening. Play will begin from 10.30am today.
ORDE OF PLAY
Today's matches
Centre Court (start at 10.30am): Amelie Mauresmo vs Svetlana Kuznetsova (contd.); (11.30am) Martina Hingis vs Maria Sharapova; (2pm) Amelie Mauresmo or Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Justine Henin-Hardenne or Francesca Schiavone; Sania Mirza/Maria Vento-Kabchi vs Daniela Hantuchova/Ai Sugiyama; (7pm) Martina Hingis or Maria Sharapova vs Maria Kirilenko or Lindsay Davenport; followed by doubles semifinals.
Court 1 (start at 10.30am): Justine Henin-Hardenne vs Francesca Schiavone; Elena Likhovtseva/Vera Zvonareva vs Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko; Jelena Jankovic/Na Li vs Kveta Peschke/Francesca Schiavone; Followed by doubles semifinal. Court 3 (start at 11.30am) Maria Kirilenko vs Lindsay Davenport; Svetlana Kuznetsova/Nadia Petrova vs Zi Yan/Jie Zheng.
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