A four-and-a-half hour rain delay has delayed Sam Stosur’s Sydney International campaign by 24 hours with the Australian No.1 to now face Lucie Safarova on Monday afternoon.
Play at Sydney Olympic Park didn’t get underway until 6.15pm (AEDT) when world No.30 Madison Keys of the US beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-4.
Defending champion Tsvetana Pironkova progressed to the second round with the Bulgarian brushing aside America’s Nicole Gibbs 6-3 6-1.
World No.21 Stosur and Safarova were due to be the third to take the court on Ken Rosewall Arena, but with the match unlikely to start before 9pm tournament officials took the decision to put it back until day two.
Stosur needs to find some form before heading to the Australian Open after crashing out in the opening round in Brisbane last week and faces a difficult task against the Czech left-hander.
Safarova, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year, holds a 9-2 record over Stosur who is expecting a tough test against the world No.16.
“There’s no easy first-round matches,” Stosur said.
“This is one of the toughest draws of the whole year.
“But I guess one of the great things about this tournament going into a grand slam is you’re going to match up against some of the best players in the world and you’re going to see where you’re stacked against them.”
Victory for Stosur would likely set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki who will face Barbora Strycova-Zahlavova in her opening match.
The Dane jetted in to Sydney on Sunday having reached the final of the WTA event in Auckland where she lost to Venus Williams in three sets.
“It’s great to be here in Sydney, it’s a fantastic city and I have a lot of good memories here,” Wozniacki said.
“I had a good year last year reaching the final of the US Open and hopefully I can go better again in 2015.”
Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova will kick off proceedings on Ken Rosewall Arena on Monday with her first-round clash against German Andrea Petkovic taking place at 12pm.
Australian duo Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios are now likely to play their first-round matches on Tuesday.
