By TERRY MADDAFORD
The rain all but ruined the day's action, but it could not prevent one of the biggest comebacks of the Heineken Open and ultimately an upset.
With all singles play washed out, organisers late in the day sent some doubles pairings to the indoor courts at the North
Harbour Tennis Centre to ensure that at least the first round would be completed.
The fourth-seeded American pairing of Jan-Michael Gambill and Graydon Oliver were expected to be too strong for South African Ellis Ferreira and his American partner Brian MacPhie in their first round battle.
But the right-handed American combination went down 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-7 (2-7).
Playing two left-handers, they won the first-set tiebreak on a Ferreira double fault.
But Ferreira and MacPhie fought back to take the next two sets, also on tiebreaks.
It kept alive Ferreira's hopes of a third doubles victory in Auckland.
He won, with different partners, in 1997 and 2000.
Two courts away, Brazilian star Gustavo Kuerten and his sometime Davis Cup team-mate Andre Sa went to work.
In an all-South American quarter-final, they traded shots with Argentines Lucas Arnold and 2002 Wimbledon singles finalist David Nalbandian, whose singles bid ended in the first round on Tuesday.
There was plenty for the small, but enthusiastic crowd, to savour. Kuerten and Sa were the favourites, but after taking the first set 6-3, the Brazilians fell behind 1-3 and 2-4 in the second before rallying to 6-6 and forcing the tiebreak.
With a mixture of the very good and a little of the ordinary, Kuerten and Sa eventually prevailed 7-4 to progress to the semifinals.
They will meet the winners of the match between second-seeded South Africans David Adams and Robbie Koenig and New Zealand's Mark Nielsen and Alistair Hunt - which was postponed last night - for a place in the final.
Organisers have scheduled play to start at the ASB Tennis Centre at the earlier time of 10am today.
If the rain persists, it is likely they will again play doubles matches indoors at Albany.
They have no plans to play singles indoors, but it has been suggested that the final could be put back a day to Sunday.
The eight second-round singles matches have been scheduled to be played first on four courts today.
By TERRY MADDAFORD
The rain all but ruined the day's action, but it could not prevent one of the biggest comebacks of the Heineken Open and ultimately an upset.
With all singles play washed out, organisers late in the day sent some doubles pairings to the indoor courts at the North
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.