Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard took just 68 minutes to storm into the semi-finals of the rain-interrupted Hobart International yesterday. The former world number five came on the court late in the evening after hours of rain delays to inflict a 6-3, 6-2 win over Italian second seed Camila Giorgi. Bouchard set up a semi-final today with world number 37 and third seed Dominika Cibulkova of the Slovak Republic. “I’m happy I was able to have a lot of energy considering how long we waited today,” Bouchard said.
She said staying mentally prepared for the match during the frustrating rain delays was one of the toughest challenges.
Cibulkova overcame Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens, 7-5, 6-3 in a match that spanned more than seven hours, including three lengthy rain interruptions. “The conditions were really tough,” the Slovak told reporters. “I don’t remember that I have such tough conditions and match and starting and stopping so many times and today was really a mental thing. I came back three times on the court and I won even stronger than I was before.”
France’s Alize Cornet strolled into the semis without playing a shot after her ninth seeded German opponent Mona Barthel withdrew before their match with a back injury. Barthel sustained the injury during her previous match against Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
Cornet will play Swede Johanna Larsson, who overcame exhausted defending champion Heather Watson. Watson won her held-over second round match 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) and saved three match points in the process against Romanian fourth seed Monica Niculescu.
Then she came out near midnight on a cold night but could not sustain her form after winning the opening set to bow out 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Larsson in two hours 12 minutes.

Stormy weather wreaks havoc at Sydney International
A violent thunderstorm and persistent rain prevented any of the scheduled singles tennis matches from being completed on women’s semi-final and men’s quarter-finals day at the Sydney International yesterday.
Simona Halep, the second seed for next week’s Australian Open, was one of a string of top players whose hopes of getting a good workout before the year’s opening grand slam were stymied by the weather.
The Romanian top seed was leading 5-4 in the opening set of her semi-final encounter with one of her predecessors as world number two, Svetlana Kuznetsova, when the rain stopped played for the second and final time for the day.
Costa Rican qualifier Monica Puig had even more reason to be frustrated by the weather as she had raced to a 4-0 15-0 lead in her final-four match against Swiss Belinda Bencic. Weather permitting, both women’s semi-finals and all four men’s quarter-finals will be completed after a morning start on Friday, with the women’s final and men’s last four contests following in the evening.
Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov got closest to a victory on Thursday, having come from a set down to lead his quarter-final against Alexandr Dolgopolov 4-6 6-3 4-2.
The match started in the stifling early afternoon heat, and Dimitrov shattered his racket on the court in frustration after shanking a return to lose the first set.
The storm stopped play before the second set could get under way, but Dimitrov quickly got the upper hand when the action resumed to even up the contest and race into the lead in the decider. More showers are forecast for today but the chance of rain is predicted to decrease significantly in the late afternoon.