Mertens toils

Tennis: Elise Mertens beat the rain and Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA event in Switzerland. The pair toiled for more than 21⁄ hours through rain drops before the second-seeded Belgian won 6-2 5-7 7-5. With play affected by the weather for a fifth straight day, plans to complete both the second round and quarterfinals yesterday were put on hold. But Kirsten Flipkens and Camila Giorgi did manage to complete respective upset second-round victories over Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Alison van Uytvanck.