It is the tournament organizers’ worst nightmare when a day’s schedule is heavily impacted due to inclement weather. Naysayers have more reasons to voice their criticism at the tournament.
At this week’s WTA Copa Colsanitas Zurich in Bogota, Colombia, it has been raining on every single day of main draw action. On Thursday, the second-round match involving two-time defending champion Tatjana Maria and Julia Riera on Cancha Central was suspended for at least three hours because of rain and then shortly after due to a power outage that lasted another hour.
“Rain…The lights go out”
It is possible that the rains caused a technical fault in the city’s power grid, bringing the match to a standstill. Players left the court for a long while, but exuberant Colombian fans stayed up until the resumption of play at around 8:40 pm local time (9:40 pm ET).
The tournament’s official X account (formerly Twitter) shared a sarcastic graphic of the situation when the match was suspended multiple times. However, one unhappy fan alleged that the tournament did not allow the fans to re-enter the main court after leaving. Instead, they stayed within the venue and got rained on.
Lluvia… Se apagan las luces pic.twitter.com/fCPn967w6S
— Copa Colsanitas Zurich (@CopaColsanitas_) April 5, 2024
The delays didn’t help Riera, who lost all her momentum after winning the first set 6-2. After resumption from the washout–which was greeted with loud noises by the fans–she lost the second set 6-0 as errors crept into her game. The young Argentine regained her composure at the start of the third. She broke Maria to take a 2-1 lead before play was paused due to the aforementioned power loss.
Again, Riera’s rhythm was affected. When the match resumed for a second time, she did not win another game, as Maria closed out a 2-6 6-0 6-2 win under the lights. The German mother of two progresses into yet another quarterfinal in Bogota, where she will meet home favorite and 2021 champion Camila Osorio.
Because of the late-night finish, the match between Francesca Jones and Laura Siegemund was moved to an outside court. At the same time, top seed Marie Bourzkova’s match against Hailey Baptiste continued on the main court.
Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
