The quiet before the storm at Classic

This year’s ASB Classic didn’t so much get off to a bang, more of a splat as rain disrupted play on the first day of the fortnight of tennis.

With the two stars, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska, not playing until today and local hope Jade Lewis also having her singles match on day two of the tournament, the Classic showcased some lesser lights on the opening day.

Given what lies ahead this week for the women’s tournament and even more so for the men’s event next week, this was undoubtedly the quietest day of the tournament.

The first main draw match on Centre Court was between Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic and Croatian Petra Martic.

Hardly household names, but the

18-year-old Vondrousova is the youngest player in the top 100, so there was a bit of interest there if she won.

She lost.

Martic, who has a world ranking of 90 and got to the fourth round of the French Open and Wimbledon last year, won the first set in a tiebreak and was up 5-2 in the second.

Vondousova saved five match points when serving in the next game. But with Martic up 30-0 in the next game a heavy shower hit the arena and it took the players off the court at 3.05pm.

Once the rain stopped the Centre Court was almost completely dry, before the skies opened again and it wasn’t until

3.56pm that play resumed.

The action lasted for just a minute, with Vondrousova putting two backhands into the net.

‘‘That’s definitely not something I wanted, especially at 5-3 and 30-0,’’ Martic said of having to go off at an important time in the match.

‘‘I felt like I had momentum and playing well.

‘‘So I didn’t like the rain, to be honest, but I tried to stay focused and luckily it ended up well.’’

Being so close to defeat, Vondrousova was also in an awkward position at the resumption, but Martic said she couldn’t expect her opponent to give up.

‘‘She had nothing to lose basically,’’ Martic said.

‘‘It was on me, but at the same time I tried to use those patterns that worked for me before the rain delay and managed to finish without any complications.’’

Today should be a much more exciting day and hopefully a drier one.