Workers mop up the playing surface as play was stopped due to rain during the Qatar Total Open at the International Khalifa Tennis Complex in Doha yesterday. Picture by Anvar Sadath
Inclement weather wreaked havoc on the second day of the Qatar Total Open at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex.
Two spells of afternoon downpour sent the schedule into a state of flux pushing back 11 first round matches yesterday.
The wet spell which affected the qualifying rounds on Sunday and also day one action of the main draw on Monday, forced the organisers for an early start to proceeding’s yesterday.
But of the three matches which got off at 2.00pm, on different courts, none could be completed.
There were two stoppage spells on account of rain, the first one happened after the players had seen nearly an hour’s action.
Play resumed after a hour’s break but the players again had to rush under the umbrellas and off to the dressing room as the downpour became much heavier, forcing a postponement of play for the second time.
Play didn’t resume till the time we went to press.
“Yes! it is still raining, we will update you once we get information from the officials! Stay tuned,” Qatar Tennis Federation @QatarTennis tweeted in response to a querry.
Former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic, who made to the main draw via the qualifying route, got an unexpected rest, as her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was one of the 11 matches which were pushed back.
Jankovic, who has hired former world No8 Guillermo Canas of Argentina as her new coach, lost the first set 6-1 and was trailing 3-2 when played had to be postponed. Canas has previously coached Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili and was part of Kei Nishikori’s team. Among those women who were in action were Italy’s Roberta Vinci against qualifier Lauren Davis of US.
The American ranked 55 won the first set 6-1 against the Italian ranked 30 places above her in the WTA rankings, and the second set was tied at one-all when rain struck.
The third match between Irina Begu of Romania and Darya Kasatkina of Russia, Begu was leading 5-3 when rain came calling.
The other eight matches which were salted for yesterday but never took off were between Madison Brengle vs Caroline Garcia, Yulia Putintseva vs Timea Bacsinszky, Barbora Strýcová vs Fatma Al Nabhani, Shuai Zhang vs Tímea Babos, Caroline Wozniacki vs Kiki Bertens, Christina McHale vs Elena Vesnina, Garbiñe Muguruza vs Çagla Büyükakçay and Laura Siegemund vs Mónica Puig.
On day one only one match of the main draw took place.
On Monday, rain halted play for two hours the match between Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.
The Australian won 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the second round where she will take on the winner of the match between Strýcová and Al Nabhani.
