Tennis tournament suspended as cyclone heading towards event featuring British star | Tennis | Sport
Play at the WTA 250 tournament in Chennai has been suspended for the second day running as Cyclone Montha wreaks havoc. The Chennai Open is one of three WTA Tour events taking place this week, in what is the final week of the regular season on the women’s circuit.
But play has yet to get underway, with all matches on Monday and Tuesday being cancelled as a cyclone nears the city. Heavy rainfall has already interrupted play, and flights in the area have been cancelled.
British No. 3 Fran Jones is among those waiting to get her campaign underway in the final week of the season. There has not been any play in Chennai since the qualifying event finished over the weekend.
Tournament organisers are now hoping to complete all first-round matches on Wednesday in an attempt to catch up, and the forecast is looking up for the rest of the week.
Jones is set to face qualifier Mei Yamaguchi in the second match on Court 1. Another Brit, Eden Silva, will be in action in the doubles draw alongside Amina Anshba.
Meanwhile, Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic will be in action on the Centre Court, while No. 1 seed Zeynep Sonmez must play her opening match on the second-biggest court.
And the aptly named Storm Hunter, a talented doubles player, will be in action in the singles event.
There are two other WTA 250 events taking place this week in Hong Kong and Jiujiang.
Britain’s Katie Boulter, who finished runner-up in Hong Kong last year, was forced to retire from her opening match against Alexandra Eala on Tuesday. Eala had a 6-4 2-1 lead when Boulter called the physio and started crying as she could not continue.
But top seeds Belinda Bencic and Leylah Fernandez got off to a winning start. Bencic is now on a five-match unbeaten run after claiming the title in Tokyo last week.
Over at the Jiangxi Open, No. 1 seed Ann Li was unable to build on her momentum after winning the Guangzhou Open last week. She lost her opening match to Zhuoxuan Bai.
