18 Jun 2011

Rain disrupts pre-Wimbledon event

2:25 pm on 18 June 2011

Rain prevented any play on Friday at the ATP-WTA Eastbourne grasscourt tennis event with the pre-Wimbledon tournament stalled at the semi-final stage.

With Wimbledon starting on Tuesday and players keen to get to London for final practice at the All England club, officials are growing frustrated with conditions which threaten to wreck a tight timetable.

The semi-finals in both the men's and women's events were put off until Sunday.

The Czech women's fifth seed Petra Kvitova was due to play Daniela Hantuchova, the Slovak who put out Venus Williams, while French sixth seed Marion Bartoli, a 2007 Wimbledon finalist, was taking on former Roland Garros finalist Samantha Stosur of Australia, seeded seventh.

On the men's side, third seed Janko Tipsarevic, the lone seed left in a field which had been headed by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, was to play Japan's Kei Nishikori.

The other semi-final was to pit Italian Andreas Seppi against Russia's Igor Kunitsyn.