Rain shut down play at the Winston-Salem Open Friday afternoon, pushing back both men’s singles semifinals with a Saturday final spot on the line.
Only one match had finished when the skies opened, leaving the tournament’s two biggest remaining questions unanswered and fans checking radar instead of scoreboards. Day 7 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex was supposed to settle both singles finalists by early evening.
The tournament’s official account confirmed the suspension in a social media post Friday, and the tennis-update account edge AI said the stoppage appeared minor and that action could resume shortly if the rain lets up.
But as of 5:30 p.m. ET, the rain had not let up, meaning the delay had stretched to nearly 45 minutes. AccuWeather showed thundershowers continuing in the Wake Forest University area through 6 p.m.
What The Forecast Shows
The National Weather Service office in Raleigh called for showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2 p.m. Friday in Winston-Salem, with a high near 84 degrees and a 70 percent chance of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service’s Raleigh forecast office. Storms and a 60 percent rain chance were expected to linger into the evening before tapering off.
The wider region backed up that forecast. Severe thunderstorm warnings covered several counties around Charlotte on Friday afternoon, with forecasters warning of damaging wind gusts, localized flooding and dangerous lightning, according to WBTV. Winston-Salem sits roughly 80 miles north of that activity, but the same system was moving through the area, and the station noted the same storms could disrupt Friday night high school football and the Carolina Panthers‘ preseason finale elsewhere in the state.
Saturday looks calmer. The National Weather Service put Saturday’s high near 83 with only a 30 percent chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, a forecast that should hold up better for the final.
Singles Semifinals Wait On Weather
Doubles played out before the rain arrived. Austin Krajicek and Nikola Mektic outlasted Theo Arribage and Manuel Guinard 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 in a deciding-set tiebreak, according to the tournament’s official results page, and moved into Saturday’s doubles final.
The singles semifinals never got that far. No. 3 seed Ignacio Buse of Peru was set to face Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi not before 4 p.m. ET on Stadium Court, with Australian James Duckworth and No. 4 seed Arthur Fery of Great Britain following not before 6:30 p.m., according to the tournament’s daily schedule. Both matches sat at 0-0 when the delay hit, according to a live-scoring tracker.
Fery arrives on a roll. The British No. 4 seed has climbed through the draw off the back of a breakout Wimbledon run earlier this summer, and a semifinal appearance in Winston-Salem extends that stretch. Buse, meanwhile, is chasing his first tour-level final of the season after grinding through a difficult section of the bracket.
Whoever wins each semifinal advances to Saturday’s singles final, also scheduled for not before 4 p.m., leaving a tight turnaround if Friday’s session runs long.
Tournament policy states that if a session is canceled before one match on Stadium Court is completed, ticket holders are entitled to a ticket for the same session next year. No refunds are issued once a Stadium Court match wraps.
For now, the Wake Forest Tennis Complex waits. The doubles final field is set. The singles field, and the rest of Saturday’s schedule, hinges on when the rain stops, and organizers are expected to post the next on-court update as soon as conditions allow play to resume.
Why is the Winston-Salem Open Delayed Today? When Will Play Start Again?