The grass-court season is off to quite a chaotic start at the HSBC Championships as rain has played the spoilsport since the tournament commenced, and things are only getting worse. One match that got severely affected by the gloomy weather was the R16 clash between Donna Vekic and Marie Bouzkova. The match had initially commenced on Wednesday, June 10. But no one could have expected that the winner would be decided almost two days later.

The match came to a conclusion on Friday, June 12, as Vekic triumphed 7-6, 6-3. It was suspended for a total of 42 hours as the rain just kept on pouring. A major reason behind this massive delay is that none of the courts used in the tournament have roofs.

Vekic, who had entered the event as a lucky loser following Marta Kostyuk’s withdrawal, had first taken to Court 5 on Wednesday. The action was going pretty smoothly until the 11th game, when rain showers delayed the match. Vekic led 6-5 at this stage, but her momentum was halted as the play didn’t resume later in the day.

As a result, the match was pushed to Thursday, where the rain took over once again. Though the players were slated to return and resume their match, the entire day ended up being washed out due to the persistent rain. Not a single point was played around the courts as multiple singles and doubles matches got delayed.

The action finally resumed during the morning session on Friday, and both players entered the court hoping that the winner would be decided without any further delay. Bouzkova held her serve to take the first set to a tiebreaker. Vekic dominated the initial stages of the breaker and had a 6-2 lead at one stage.

However, the Croatian failed to capitalize despite having four set points under her belt. Bouzkova forged a stunning comeback and had even earned a set point. But she too failed to convert it, allowing Vekic to get back into the set. The latter finally took the lead on her seventh set point and won the breaker 11-9.

This boosted Vekic’s confidence as she broke right away in the second set. The 29-year-old had a golden opportunity to secure a double-break but failed to convert three break points in the fifth game. However, she would go on to clinch the match in the ninth game by gaining a decisive break over Bouzkova.

Vekic has now set up a quarterfinal clash against Karolina Pliskova at the HSBC Championships. Unlike the Croatian, the latter had reached the last 8 rather comfortably. She was leading 6-2, 3-4 against Victoria Mboko in the R16 clash on Wednesday when the Canadian suffered a nasty fall and hurt her left knee. She had to withdraw not just from the match, but from the tournament as a whole and Pliskova was handed the victory.

Vekic won’t have a lot of time to prepare for the clash against Pliskova, and she will have to take the court for the second time on Friday. This is because the constant rain delays have led to scheduling conflicts, and matches have to be played at different times so that the tournament reaches its conclusion as planned.

Rain causes major scheduling problem at the HSBC Championships

The weather had made its presence felt on the opening day of the tournament when multiple matches had to be suspended. The clash between Katie Boulter and Leylah Fernandez had remained unresolved on Monday and was eventually concluded the next day.

The weather hasn’t eased up ever since and now the organizers are facing serious problems with the scheduling. Going by the original schedule, the tournament should have already reached the quarterfinals by the start of Friday. However, multiple R16 matches went on for almost the entire day.

To solve this problem, the organizers have decided to squeeze in quarterfinal matches on Friday itself. This means that multiple players will have to return to the court during the night session. Though all of the QF clashes are scheduled to be played on Friday, there is no guarantee that the weather will not get involved yet again.

It remains to be seen whether the remainder of the tournament will go as planned and conclude on its original date.