Rain washes out Hong Kong tennis

HONG KONG, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Rain continued to plague the Salem Open Wednesday when only one match could resume before the weather moved in again to halt the action.

Steady showers forced three matches to be suspended Tuesday and only the one between Austrian Stefan Koubek and Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero resumed Wednesday.

However, after Koubek won one game to take a 3-2 lead in the second set, rain halted play. Ferrero, winner of the Tennis Masters Series Monte Carlo, won the first set, 6-2 on Tuesday.

Due to the rain, a total of 13 first-round singles matches are scheduled to be played on Thursday.

Only Nicolas Massu, Francisco Clavet and Hyung-Taik Lee have earned a place in the second round.

On Tuesday, Cecil Mamiit and Jonas Bjorkman were tied, 3-3, while Jeff Morrison was up 6-1, 1-1 over Takao Suzuki when play was suspended.

No. 3 Carlos Moya takes on Jan-Michael Gambill for the fifth time in their careers. The Spaniard won four of his 11 ATP titles this year. He also was a finalist in Monte Carlo. Gambill reached the final in Los Angeles where he fell to countryman Andre Agassi.

Russian Marat Safin, still looking for his first title of the year, faces Lars Burgsmuller of Germany. Safin is third in the ATP Champions Race after making the final at the Australian Open and semifinals at Roland Garros and TMS Hamburg.

Safin just won two singles matches over the weekend to help Russia defeat Argentina in the Davis Cup semifinals.