AAMI event washed out by steady Melbourne rain

MELBOURNE - Juergen Melzer and 2010 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will make a morning start in a reduced-format match Friday in hopes of helping the rain-hit AAMI Classic tennis beat some atrocious summer weather.

Play at the eight-man special event considered a prime tuneup for the Australian Open - the Grand Slam starts Monday - has been buffeted by poor weather.

After play was rained off Thursday, organiser Colin Stubs worked out an emergency plan which unfortunately depends on a better forecast than the additional rain also expected Friday. The event must end on Saturday to give players time to get to Melbourne Park for Sunday training at the Open site.

Melzer and Tsonga, whose original match Wednesday was a victim of the rain, will start with either a tiebreak set or a pro set. That winner will then come back later to play a semi-final against Frenchman Gael Monfils.

Also Friday Lleyton Hewitt and Nikolay Davydenko, who both advanced Wednesday, will play their semi-final.

“The forecast is the main complication,” Stubs said. “We’ll have to make some of this up as we go along. We want to try and keep the integrity of the event, but it’s hard to see any way out of it tomorrow.”