Saturday, August 21, 2010

Rain halts play in Montreal

The singles and doubles semifinals were supposed to have been played today in Montreal, but after continuous rain delays, the "action" involved only two games in the match between 2nd seed Caroline Wozniacki and 11th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

When it became obvious that the evening's light rain was only going to get worse, the players entertained the crowd a while with some silly exhibition tennis. Kuznetsova hit a tweener, which brought up a question that's always in the back of my mind: Why don't WTA players hit them on a regular basis? (And where is Gabriela Sabatini when you really need her?) Kuznetsova also used the handle of her racquet to pop a few returns, and when she and Wozniacki got bored with that, out came a soccer ball. After they showed off their football skills, they sat together and waited to hear whether they would be instructed to....wait some more.

They didn't have to. Play was canceled for the day. What happens tomorrow, of course, is completely dependent on the weather, but if it doesn't rain, there will be matches played simultaneously. Wozniacki was up 2-0 in the first set when the rain came, and Victoria Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva haven't even seen a court yet.

In doubles, Monica Niculescu and Shahar Peer are slated to play 2nd seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, and Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yan Zi will play 3rd seeds Kveta Peschke and Katerina Srebotnik.

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