The inaugural day of the China Open WTA tournament was hit by
persistent rain as only one match on schedule was finished in
Beijing at the Beijing Tennis Center on Monday.
The headlined first round match between Swiss Martina Hingis and
local favorite Sun Tiantian has been delayed until Tuesday.
While newly-paired Yan Zi/Peng Shuai from China also had to wait
one more day to finish their midway game against Sophie Lefevre
from France and Agnes Szatmari of Romania as the match was
suspended due to rain when the Chinese pair were leading 4-1 in the
opening set.
And since then, the rain has been nonstop, forcing the
organizers to cancel all the matches and making a busy order of
play for Tuesday.
However, more rain has been forecast to fall down Tuesday and
the temperature is expected to drop sharply.
Early in the afternoon, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia overcame
a second set slump to beat Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-0, 6-7(5)
, 6-1 before clouds started to gather in the skies.
(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2007)