Tennis: Rained out fans turned away from ASB Classic

Stands look fairly empty at the ASB Classic this morning.

Upset tennis fans are being turned away from the ASB Classic after a mistaken announcement at yesterday's semifinal.

Rain forced tournament organisers to cancel play at 9.15pm yesterday, midway through the second semifinal between Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki.

An announcement over the loudspeaker said punters could return with their tickets to watch the rest of the semifinal today.

However, a number of people have reported being told they could not re-use their tickets today.

Auckland man Ryan Nelson said his wife, Adele, and a friend were at the tennis yesterday. When the match had to be stopped, a person on a speaker said: "We will see you all tomorrow."

"That's why they went again today. But they were turned away from the gates because their ticket was for yesterday. It's not fair."

Auckland Tennis tournament and commercial director Karl Budge has apologised to fans who thought tickets for yesterday's rained off match would be valid today.

He said comments made by the on-court announcer last night to disappointed spectators indicating that they could come back and watch continuation of the action from 10.30 this morning was an unfortunate error.

"We do all make mistakes and we did make one last night," Budge told Radio Sport. "To clarify, tickets for Friday are only valid for Friday. All tickets for today must be for Saturday.

"We acknowledge there was a comment made last night which was a mistake and we apologise for any confusion."

Stephens was leading tournament favourite Wozniacki 5-2 in the first set when play was cancelled yesterday. The American went on to win the match, 6-2 7-6. Stephens will play German Julia Goerges in this afternoon's final.

Meanwhile, Marina Erakovic and Silvia-Soler Espinosa were on the verge of defeat in the second doubles semifinal when play was abandoned on the Grandstand court. Danka Kovinic and Barbora Strycova were leading 5-4, 30-15 in the second set after taking the first 6-4. They went on to win 6-4 6-4.