Ruthless weather in Auckland did not stop to thwart the effort of WTA 250 organisers in Auckland. It was another day spent on the alternative indoor courts without the presence of fans, and weather forecast till the end of this week does not give any explainable hope, that any turnaround for the better will happen there.
Despite the unusual conditions, there was still a plenty of drama, not necessarily in a good sense of this word. Emma Raducanu was forced to pull out of the tournament due to the injury. US Open 2021 champion started her encounter with Viktoria Kuzmova with a flawless performance, winning first set to love. Second one was much tougher for player from GB. She lost it after 12 games, but the most important thing was the accident, once Raducanu rolld her left ankle at the end of the set. She was trying to recover with help of physio, but it was not enough, as the injury forced her to pull of the court with tears. Raducanu told to media afterwards, that the condition of surface on the courts, which are the temporary solution for weather problems in Auckland, could be the factor of what happened there: "The courts are incredibly slick, so to be honest it's not a surprise that this happened to someone. It's difficult to take. I've put a lot of physical work in the last few months and I've been feeling good and optimistic. So to be stopped by a freak injury, rolling an ankle, is pretty disappointing".
Those weird conditions are a test for a couple of big names, who compete in Auckland. Cori Gauff managed to complete a win against Sofia Kenin in a very interesting American matchup. Gauff was a favorite against Kenin, who fights back after health problems which stopped her career for a while, but the former Grand Slam champion did not forefeit this match without a battle. Each of the players produced 7 breakpoint chances, but it was Kenin who lost her service game at the end of both sets within a score 5-4 for Gauff. It was quite a decent performance from older of the Americans, but at the end it's Gauff who booked her place in QF. Current top 10 player seeded with #1 will face then Lin Zhu - the Chinese player, who managed to past through Venus Williams in the only one outdoor match played today before the moon local time, with an assistance of horrendous amount of wind. Williams, who will find herself in the main draw of Australian Open due to a wild-card receivement did not serve out her chance to win, being 5-4 up with a break in the final set, losing it 5-7 at the end.
Another notable name - Leylah Fernandez, played a superb tennis against Julia Grabner. The Canadian gave away just one game for the Austrian player ranked on 83th place in the ranking, without a necessity to face any breakpoint during the whole match.
