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China Open finals hit by rain, delayed to Monday

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-11 09:16

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 October 10, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - It should have been the last day of China Open, with three finals to be staged on the Lotus court of the  National Tennis Center here on Sunday, but an unexpected rain changed everything.

Twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan were lucky, as they managed to finish the match and successfully defended their men's doubles title of the 2.1-million-US-dollar ATP 500 event, beating Poland's Mariusz Fyearstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in straight sets.

The Bryans, the number 1 ranked doubles team in the world, clinched the match 6-1, 7-6 (5) before celebrating their victory with a trademark chest bump.

"That's great for us to defend the title. It's always fun to come and do a tournament as a defending champion and then to defend it is even better," said Bob Bryan, after becoming the first reigning champion in the seven-year-old China Open, together with his brother Mike.

Rain delayed the match for one hour after the Bryans took a 6-5 lead in the second set. The polish pair served out after backing to the court to put the set into a tiebreaker, in which the Bryans won two straight points to conclude after 5-all.

Mike Bryan said after the match that they had a "great tiebreaker", "especially that 5-all point, was probably the point of the match.  It was a long baseline rally, and we had a couple of good shots."

The twin brothers, the Australian and U.S. Open champions, met no challenges in the opening set as they broke three times to take it 6-1 in only 22 minutes. The second set went with serve until 3-all. The Polish pair broke in the seventh game to go ahead before their opponents broke back in the tenth to level the score at 5-all.

The top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, reigning champ of the men's singles event, was not that luck. After some four and a half hours' wait, because of the rain, the world No. 2 finally stepped on the court and abreact his energy with a quick 3-0 lead with just 9 minutes into the first set.

David Ferrer of Spain, the 8th seed of the tournament, fought back in the following game, changing the set to 3-1. But the rain started again, making the hard court too slippy to play on.

The referee had no choice but to intermit the match.  Later the organizers announced in a new conference that the final was rescheduled to play not before 12:00 a.m. 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..

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

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