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Only serena wins on rainy day
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TOP seed Serena Williams was the only one to
finish her match at the U.S. Open Sunday when rain kept the
schedule makers busier than the players.Of the 49 planned
matches, 48 were suspended after starting or were postponed
before the first dry ball was struck. There was one 90-minute
dry spell, and Williams needed less than half that time to
win.In 42 minutes, she breezed through a 6-1, 6-1 victory over
20th-seeded Daja Bedanova. That followed a 6-hour delay in the
scheduled 11 a.m. starting time.Seeking her third straight
Grand Slam title, Williams showed that she was playing well
enough to justify her seeding. She won her first service game
at love, hitting three straight aces, and has lost just 10
games in her four straight-sets victories.Her strong play
comes amid the arrest of a 34-year-old German charged with
stalking her.Albrecht Stromeyer was in custody after being
arrested Saturday at the National Tennis Center when police
saw him watching through a fence while Williams
played.Stromeyer is accused of following her at the French
Open, Wimbledon and other tournaments in Europe. He is being
held on US$3,000 bail and is expected to appear in court
Thursday.Williams has been traveling with a bodyguard since
May, and tournament officials were given photos of Stromeyer
so police can spot him.There was a brief security scare
Sunday, when an unattended backpack was found in a garbage
pail outside a gate, causing police to move fans from a
concession area. Bomb disposal experts checked the bag and
found it harmless.Williams is the only player to reach the
quarterfinals so far, although tournament officials tried hard
to give her company.Play was suspended at 7 p.m., but at 8:45
p.m., workers started wiping the main court with towels,
hoping to make it playable for the match between fourth-seeded
Lindsay Davenport and No. 13 Silvia Farina Elia.The rain
resumed, but the toweling continued — an exercise as futile as
Bedanova’s exertions against Williams.Finally, about an hour
later, officials finally gave in to the weather. There would
be no more tennis Sunday.And there was some question about how
much would be played Monday with rain expected.Chief executive
of the U.S. Tennis Association Arlen Kantarian said “we’ve got
our eyes on” the possibility of putting a retractable roof on
one of the three main courts but nothing was imminent.“The
(weather) elements within a two-week event like this is part
of the competition, like crowd noise, traffic, humidity,”
Kantarian said. “That makes it intriguing.”Tell that to Pete
Sampras and Greg Rusedski, whose match was suspended in the
first set Sunday and was to resume Monday. The same happened
in the matches between eighth-seeded Justine Henin and No. 11
Daniela Hantuchova and between third-seeded Tommy Haas and No.
29 Thomas Enqvist.(SD-Agencies)
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