Things have gotten a little messy at the ATP Houston. With heavy rain in the forecast heading into the weekend, organizers are staring at a familiar problem.

At River Oaks Country Club, that’s proving especially tricky. Showers and possible storms are expected to roll in, which could disrupt play and even lead to scheduling pile-ups, forcing the tournament to tweak its plans for the days ahead.

The opening sessions for both Friday and Saturday were originally scheduled to commence with doubles. However, they will now start with singles matches. On the flip side, the timings haven’t really been shaken up. Friday’s schedule stays put, with the opening session kicking off at noon and the evening matches starting at 6 PM. As for Saturday, play is still set to get underway at 11 AM.

This new schedule will mostly be affecting the singles players as they will now have to play earlier than expected. On the other hand, the doubles players will get ample time for their preparation.

Despite the schedule change, things can still go south if the River Oaks Country Club is hit with relentless rain. With the venue not being covered by a roof, matches can go on to be delayed for hours as the play would only resume once the courts dry up.

While Shelton is set to take on Thiago Agustín Tirante, Tien will be locking horns against Roman Andres Burruchaga in the last 8. On the other hand, Tiafoe will be facing Tomás Martín Etcheverry and Paul is scheduled for an encounter against Alexei Popyrin in the next round. It remains to be seen whether these matches will get affected by rain or will conclude as per the schedule.

A similar issue had come up at the recently concluded Miami Open where heavy rain had caused chaos on multiple occasions and had delayed several important matchups.

Rain wreaks havoc at the Miami Open

The tournament had begun on a dismal note as the entire first day of qualifying got wiped out due to persistent rain. A total of 48 matches were affected due to the weather. The venue was a major reason for the delay as none of the 10 courts at the Hard Rock stadium complex had roofs.

As a massive number of qualifying matches were postponed, they all had to be squeezed in alongside the main draw. This saw the officials face scheduling issues. The Miami Open was even lagging way behind its original schedule at one stage; however, the weather conditions improved by the second week and the competition got concluded as per the schedule.

But heavy rainfall severely affected the men’s singles final between Jannik Sinner and Jiri Lehecka, leading to long and tiring delays.

The match was first pushed back by around 90 minutes before it could even begin. And just when it seemed like things were settling in, the rain returned, bringing play to a halt again for nearly 80 minutes in the second set.

At one stage, it even looked like the match would have to be postponed to the next day. However, fortunately the weather conditions improved, and Sinner wrapped up the match 6-4, 6-4 to complete a stunning ‘Sunshine Double’ triumph.

And now, the officials have already started putting plans in place to deal with the weather situation in Houston, hoping to stay one step ahead of the rain. The idea is to keep things running as close to schedule as possible, even if conditions try to throw a wrench into it.