China / China

Rain postpones singles finals to Monday at China Open

(Xinhua) Updated: 2010-10-11 09:51

Workers stand behind dryers as they attempt to dry the court after heavy rain fell ahead of the men's and women's final of the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing Oct 10, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - Rain came to the Lotus Court during the men's doubles final at the China Open on Sunday and postponed the men's and women's singles finals to Monday.

According to the supervisor of WTA and ATP, the men's final between Serbian top seed Novak Djokovic and 8th seed David Ferrer of Spain was scheduled to play not before 12:00 am local time on Monday, with the women's final between first seed Caroline Wozniacki and second seed Vera Zvonareva to be staged at 7:30 p.m..

The shower, intervening Sunday's schedule, began in the second set of men's doubles final, in which twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan defeated Poland's Mariusz Fyearstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-1, 7-6(5).

The continuous rain didn't stop until 8:30 pm, when Djokovic and Ferrer came back to the court to start their final. However, it started to rain again after the Serbian top seed led 3-1 in the opening set and never stopped.

"Both players are tired, they felt it would be better to play tomorrow rather than tonight," said Thomas Karlberg, the supervisor of ATP.

"Both Djokovic and Ferrer are heading for the Shanghai Masters to be held next week. Djokovic has his match on Tuesday, while Ferrer on Wednesday. So we have to reschedule the men's final to early Monday," Thomas said.

According to weather forecast, there will be a sunny day on Monday in Beijing.