Photo : Peter Power/Tennis Canada
Nuria Parrizas Diaz was the only woman to advance to the quarter-finals on Tuesday at the National Bank Championships as rain washed almost all the matches on the schedule.
Originally, four WTA singles matches were on the schedule for Tuesday, but only one was completed due to the inclement weather in Granby.
Parrizas Diaz and Hariet Dart were initially scheduled to begin their second-round match at 10 am, but only took to the court at 2:30 after the rain pushed back their start time by over four hours.
When they finally got underway, it was the Spaniard who found her groove first, breaking twice in the opening set as part of a four-game run to take it. The pair had been out on court for 72 minutes when they were forced to take cover when the rain returned at 2-2 in the second set.
On the restart, Parrizas Diaz looked as though she wanted to get back to the locker room as quickly as possible, winning the first three games out of the delay to move within one of victory. Closing out the match proved difficult, as she was broken serving for the win despite two match points. She needed five in total, breaking Dart to close out a 6-2, 6-4 win.
Top seed Daria Kasatkina was so close to the quarter-finals she could taste it. She led Magdalena Frech 6-3, 5-0 when the rain returned around 9 pm. The match was officially postponed at 9:20 pm.
After struggling to find her rhythm in the first round, Kasatkina was dialed in on Tuesday, breaking serve in five of her seven return games, including five straight before rain stopped play as Frech prepared to serve to stay in the match.
Now the top seed will have to come back to try and win one more game and book her place in the last eight. The other six round two matches will be on the schedule for Wednesday.
