Tennis: Blue skies but a memory for Panova

Russian Tatiana Panova could be excused for thinking back to the blue skies of three years ago as she waited in vain to play her ASB Classic quarter-final yesterday.

The 1.54m Panova, starting her 12th year as a professional, was due to play top seeded American Amy Frazier yesterday - when she will chase her first win in four attempts against the world No 26 - but persistent rain threw a spanner in tournament officials plans.

The pair will now square off on centre court this morning after a frustrating day which contained just 39 minutes of action.

It was a far different story weatherwise in 2002, Panova's best year on the women's circuit, when she made the Classic final and also reached the final at Sarasota later in the year.

"That season was pretty good for me. I got in the top 20, and I played pretty well in that week," she said last night.

She beat four players without dropping a set before coming up against Israeli Anna Smashnova-Pistolesei in the final, going down 6-2, 6-2.

At Sarasota she lost in straight sets to top seed Jelena Dokic while her other WTA final appearance was in 2000 at Pattaya, a straight sets loss to Luxembourg's Anne Kremer.

But 28-year-old Panova is not about to sit back and mope over lost opportunities.

"I never look back. I just keep going day by day," she smiled.

So how did she spend the hours yesterday waiting on the off chance for a break in the weather?

"You just wait, watch some TV. You're not really relaxed but you try to be," she said.

It was a depressing day for players and spectators. Eventually the weather lifted sufficiently to get a phalanx of ball girls and boys out on centre court, mopping up.

It worked, with the first quarter-final, between Israeli qualifier Shahar Peer and unseeded Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik, getting under way before a handful of hardy spectators at 7.30pm.

Srebotnik whizzed through the first set in half-an-hour, 6-1, and it was 1-0 to Peer and 15-all in the second set when the misty drizzle set in to kill it off once and for all.

Play starts today at 10am, with officials optimistically hoping they will get through the four singles quarter-finals and two semifinals.

They have a plan B, heading inside at North Harbour, which has the same Rebound Ace surface. That has been done previously for the men's Heineken Open, but not the Classic.

While they will use that option for the doubles if needed, the singles will be switched indoors only through gritted teeth.

"It is an outdoor tournament and we don't like to do that. It's a worst case scenario," tournament director Richard Palmer said last night.

Playing on Sunday, the day after the scheduled final, is an option, with players likely to get a late pass to their Australian event next week.