New York, Sep 5: Frequent rains postponed most matches of the US Open here at the Flushing Meadows.
The remnants of Hurricane Isaac dumped rain here a couple of times, forcing the suspension of play and caused the postponement of unfinished games and cancellation of unstarted games to Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
Play was suspended after 10 minutes of action Tuesday morning when heavy rain forced players and spectators to run for cover.
In one of the few completed matches, top seed Victoria Azarenka, who won the Australian Open this year, grabbed the early initiative breaking defending champion Samantha Stosur's serve twice to snatch a 3-0 lead in the first set before the darkened clouds erupted above.
After a 75-minute delay, Azarenka ousted Stosur 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in the resumed match in more than two hours. The 23-year-old Belarussian reached her first semifinal of US Open and ensured that she will remain atop the world rankings no matter what happens hereafter.
Further disruptions struck later in another quarterfinal of women's singles between third seed Maria Sharapova and 11th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.
The match was suspended just after warm up and continued after a while to see Bartoli lead 4-0 and had to be delayed again just after 24 minutes.
A fourth round match between fourth seed David Ferrer and 13th seed Richard Gasquet was also suspended half way and postponed to Friday with a score of 7-5, 7-6 (2), 4-3 in favour of Ferrer.
Other games rescheduled to Wednesday include a clash between Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the defending men's champion, and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka and a meeting between American Andy Roddick, the 2003 champion who is retiring after the tournament, and towering Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 winner, all for quarterfinal places.
