Daily Times

The rains came again at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday, keeping the courts with retractable roofs busy and delaying matches everywhere else.

Fighting the weather that interrupted her second-round match, 19-year-old Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic shook off a poor second set and rallied to defeat 24-year-old American McCartney Kessler 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. The match was suspended for more than a half-hour in the third set because of rain.

“It was basically very tough with the circumstances …” Noskova said in her postmatch on-court interview. “And it’s starting to rain again so I’m glad we finished it at the time.”

After the midmatch struggles, Noskova found her stride.

“I didn’t really play much in the second, so I was a little sleepy, I guess,” she said. “I just had to wake up really quickly for the third.”In another matchup of unseeded players, Russian Anna Kalinskaya turned back Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-5.

Rus, 33, had defeated the No. 24 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine to reach the second round. Kalinskaya converted 6 of her 14 break points against Rus and finished with a 24-16 edge in winners.