Weather pushes back first-round matches at BB&T Atlanta Open

After a brief delay during the opening matches starting at noon, a big storm knocked the BB&T Atlanta Open schedule back a couple of hours before any singles matches got underway Monday night.

Opening tournament play on the Stadium Court were Purav Raja and Divij Sharan competing in doubles against Treat Huey and Robert Lindstedt. The first weather delay of the day came early in the match but Raja and Sharan took care of the first set 7-6 after play resumed. Huey and Lindstedt tied the match with a 7-6 second-set win.

With a midday thunderstorm rolling in from the north, Raja and Sharan nar- rowly finished the match before rain hit, winning the 10-point tiebreaker 10-4.

A singles match between Lukas Lacko versus Thomas Fabbiano was supposed to follow, but after just a couple warmup shots, officials announced the second weather delay. This one lasted more than two hours before Lacko and Fabbiano get back to the court.

Lacko didn’t waste any time once the courts dried. He took the first set 6-1 and didn’t allow a single break point until leading the second set 5-2. Lacko saved both break points to win the match in an impressive 59 minutes. He dominated second serves, winning 14 of 19 possible points while Fabbiano won just 6 of his 17.

Tommy Paul, who made it into the main draw through qualifying, next took on the seventh-seeded Hyeon Chung. With an expected 6 p.m. starting time, the delayed match took on a much different rhythm than the one before it.

In the first set, Paul and Chung dueled in an opening game that took nearly 10 minutes, the pair trading advantages until Chung finally took the game. He went on to win the first set 6-4. Paul struck back in the second set with a 6-2 victory.

As they played the third set well past 9 p.m., two singles matches were still scheduled to be played Monday evening. According to the Tuesday draw released at 7 p.m., both were still set be completed at the Stadium Court later Monday.