Defending champion Andy Murray was plunged into a nightmare US Open scheduling scenario on a rain-ravaged Wednesday in New York in which two-time champion Venus Williams slid to defeat.
Third seed Murray had been slated to play his first match almost 48 hours after second seed Rafael Nadal – viewed as the most likely to triumph this year – had started his campaign on Monday.
However, Murray’s scheduled 7pm (local time) start on the Arthur Ashe Stadium was pushed back because of a four-hour rain suspension.
That delay was made worse when 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez became bogged down in a first-round dogfight in the same arena. The Argentine sixth seed prevailed 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 7-6 (9-7).
It was a development which would have only served to darken Wimbledon champion Murray’s already tetchy response to his Wednesday start against French veteran Michael Llodra.
“I’m playing my first round match at the us open at 7pm on a wednesday…,” tweeted Murray on Tuesday in thinly veiled frustration at a schedule in which even a first-round mixed doubles match was completed before he was due to take the court.
Williams, the US Open champion in 2000 and 2001 and a seven-time grand slam winner, went down in a three-hour second-round clash to tenacious Chinese player Zheng Jie.
Two-time grand slam semi-finalist Zheng advanced to the third round by outlasting the American 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-5) in a victory she called unbelievable.
“Today was a tough match for me. It’s unbelievable I can beat her,” said Zheng, who next faces Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.
As a result of Wednesday’s downpours, organisers cancelled eight women’s second-round singles matches and 20 doubles encounters until Thursday.
One of those held over was the second-round clash between reigning women’s champion Serena Williams, chasing a fifth US Open title, and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
The rain meant some matches that started at 11 in the morning were still being completed as darkness fell.
Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na managed to beat the rain to reach the third round.
Third-seeded Radwanska, who has never gone beyond the fourth round, defeated Spanish world No.103 Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor 6-0 7-5, while Chinese fifth seed Li – playing in her 30th grand slam and a New York quarter-finalist in 2009 – beat 100th-ranked Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-2 6-2.
Radwanska next plays Russian 32nd seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Li will face 30th seed Laura Robson in a rematch of their clash in New York 12 months ago which the British player won.
Robson defeated France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
“I’m going to go out there like I approach every other match and, you know, just try my best on court and try and played my own game,” said Robson who was 89 in the world this time last year when she stunned Li.
