DUBAI — France's Caroline Garcia upset third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships Wednesday.
Garcia was four points from victory at 5-3, 15-15 in the third set when a hailstorm swept the area, suspending play for 3 hours, 39 minutes.
Garcia ate and slept during the delay and closed out the match when they returned.
"I stay positive all the match," said Garcia. "It works well. Very happy to finish it."
The No.11-ranked Suarez Navarro is the fifth of eight seeds to be upset so far in Dubai. Fifth-seeded player Belinda Bencic, sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova, seventh-seeded Roberta Vinci and eighth-seeded player Svetlana Kuznetsova lost in the first round.
Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic trailed by a set and a break before defeating Julia Goerges of Germany 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
"I can't believe how slow I started, but I'm happy that I got the win," Strycova said. "I wasn't feeling well at the beginning but I pulled though in my head. It was tough."
Nadal and Thiem advance in Rio
After an hour-long delay for rain, Rafael Nadal advanced to the second round at the Rio Open with 6-1, 6-4 win over fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno.
Nadal won gold in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but missed the London Olympics with an injury. Despite being asked about it repeatedly, he’s staying away from talking about the Rio’s Olympics that open in six months.
“The Olympics is a very important event, a very special one, and I’m going to try my best when the Olympics arrive,” Nadal said. “But for now I’m playing the ATP tournament in Rio. That’s the most important thing for me.”
Also advancing Tuesday were No. 2 David Ferrer, who beat Nicolas Jarry of Chile 6-3, 7-6 (3), and No. 5 Dominic Thiem, who had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pablo Andujar of Spain.
Not much will faze Thiem in this week’s Rio Open.
He beat Nadal - the king of clay - last week in the semifinals in Buenos Aires, and then won the event for his fourth clay-court title.
“Both things gave me a lot of confidence, but after the match with Nadal I wanted to give everything to win the tournament,” the 22-year-old Austrian said. “The win against Rafa would have been worth only half if I had lost the final.”
No. 3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had his match rained out against Thiago Monteiro. They will play Wednesday.
In first-round upsets, Federico Delbonis of Argentina beat sixth-seeded Jack Sock of the US 7-5, 6-1 and Alexandr Dolgopolov upset No. 8 seed Thomaz Bellucci 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-2.
On the women’s side, top-seeded Teliana Pereira of Brazil lost 6-3, 7-5 to Petra Martic of Croatia, and second-seeded Johanna Larsson of Sweden defeated Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain 7-5, 6-4.
Pereira’s early loss is a blow for the women’s side of the combined WTA-ATP event on outdoor clay. She is only ranked No. 43 but gave local organizers a hometown favorite.
Anderson quits Delray. In Florida, top-seeded Kevin Anderson quit his first-round match at the Delray Beach Open Tuesday because of an injured right shoulder.
Anderson, who won the tournament in 2012, had just dropped the first set to 103rd-ranked American Austin Krajicek in a tiebreaker when he headed to the sideline. He packed his racket bag, shook his opponent’s hand, tossed some used wristbands into the crowd and walked off.
Krajicek was one of six Americans to advance to the second round. Rajeev Ram, the beneficiary of Anderson’s withdrawal at the Australian Open, upset second-seeded Bernard Tomic 7-6 (3), 6-1, while last year’s finalist, Donald Young, moved on when his opponent, Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, retired with a leg injury while trailing 7-6 (3), 3-0. Sixth-seeded Steve Johnson squeaked past Australian John Millman, winning 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8), and Sam Querrey defeated Thiemo de Bakker 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Former Wimbledon junior champion Noah Rubin won just the second ATP Tour-level match of his career when he defeated Australian Sam Groth 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6).
