Cincinnati, Aug 13 (IANS) World No. 3 Alexander Zverev was denied the opportunity to serve out his third-round Cincinnati Open evening match against Brandon Nakashima as the inclement weather led to the suspension of play on Wednesday (IST).

The 2021 tournament champion had just broken for a 6-4, 5-4 lead when players were forced from the court at 9:03 p.m. due to lightning in the area. Heavy rain soon followed and less than 30 minutes later officials cancelled all remaining play for the night, ATP reports.

“Due to the rain, there will be no further play this evening. A revised order of play for Wednesday will be released shortly,” the organisers said.

When play resumes Wednesday Zverev will attempt to serve out the match and set a fourth-round showdown with Karen Khachanov, who upset the German in last week’s Toronto semi-finals after saving one match point.

Ben Shelton’s scheduled night match with Roberto Bautista Agut will now be played Thursday (IST).

Thunderstorms also forced the postponement of two scheduled women singles third-round matches.

No. 4 seed and defending finalist Jessica Pegul and No. 31 seed Magda Linette completed two sets before play was suspended for the night after heavy rain pummeled the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Linette won the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(5) before Pegula hit back to take the second set 6-3.

Heavy rain and lightning interrupted the second set between Linette and Pegula twice. Linette and Pegula will resume their match second on P&G Center Court on Thursday (IST) following the ATP match between No. 7 seed Holger Rune and No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe.

The match will begin no earlier than noon local time and will be the first of three women’s singles matches on the main stadium for the day.

Also postponed to Thursday was the third round between No. 16 seed Clara Tauson and Veronika Kudermetova, and two doubles matches.

–IANS

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