01:34 AM
Evans ahead in second set
jamie Johnson reports: Looking to make amends, Dan Evans is 4-1 up in the second set, having broken Nishioka twice.
The Briton is on serve and the crowd is filling up for what will likely be a deciding set.
01:10 AM
Stay up for the headliner
So, while Dan Evans presumably chomps angrily on bit of banana, a reminder that following this match is tonight’s headliner: Emma Raducanu and the Blisters. Which I am 100 per cent calling as a band name. That’s mine, you can’t have it. It’s also a little homage, as we’re in Washington, to the iconic DC punk scene. Let’s hope that Raducanu’s opponent Liudmila Samsonova has Bad Brains and is only a Minor Threat to the US Open champion.
01:03 AM
Evans will have to do it the hard way
Jamie Johnson reports: Nishioka takes the tie break 7-5 and let’s out a mighty roar. The Briton is shaking his head in frustration, knowing he should have finished the job much earlier.
12:52 AM
Evans into first-set tie break
Jamie Johnson reports: Evans raced to a 40-15 lead in the first game after the restart but was brought back to deuce after he found the net at the end of a 20+ shot rally.
He took advantage but not the game as Nishioka whipped a backhand across court and out of his reach.
With two quick aces Nishioka took the game and there’s now a tie break in the first set. 6-6.
12:39 AM
Dan Evans back on court
Jamie Johnson reports: Dan Evans is back on court with a crucial game against Yoshihito Nishioka – who is on serve – coming up.
The temperature has dropped but it’s still 23C in Washington, and fans are trickling in for what looks set to be a long evening session.
12:32 AM
Ponchos were free in my day
Organisers in DC are rushing to offer assistance to wet patrons – including charging them $5 for a poncho. Which seems a bit naughty.
12:28 AM
Play to resume
Good news and bad news. The good news is that play is set to resume very shortly, which means Emma Raducanu could be on court quite soon.
The bad news is that the deluge has washed away Rob Bagchi and left you instead with me, Josh White, to take over live blog duties tonight, the equivalent of a sort of muddy, slushy post-rain residue.
Officials are out checking the courts and we are minutes away from play restarting.
Daria Saville and Rebecca Marino are on court inside the main stadium. Saville, who is Australian, is 6-1, 3-0 up.
Dan Evans meanwhile is waiting to get back out to the John A Harris stadium, where he is 6-5 up in the first against Yoshihito Nishioka. At the conclusion of that match, it’ll be Emma Raducanu vs Ludmila Samsonova.
11:44 PM
The Lord Giveth
11:32 PM
Better news
Jamie Johnson reports:
A note from the organisers: Courts are being dried. Matches to resume shortly.
Dan Evans resumes 6-5 ahead in the first set against Yoshihito Nishioka in their three-set quarter-final. Emma Raducanu vs Liudmila Samsonova will follow the completion of that match. Josh White will be here to helm our coverage whenever that match begins.
11:19 PM
Long day’s journey into night ahead
Jamie Johnson reports from Washington DC
The rain is easing off in Washington, where it’s still 23 degrees. Staff are hard at work with rollers on the courts, mopping up the surface water.
There’s still a lot of tennis to come this evening, with Dan Evans, Emma Raducanu and Nick Kyrgios all expected out on court if the weather holds.
Organisers are prepared to push as late as possible this evening to get the matches completed.
11:14 PM
Good news – the storm has passed
10:51 PM
A further update from the organisers
It’s still raining and there is no chance of play before 11.30pm UK time. But if she does get on tonight, we will cover it. Might not be me … but global team Telegraph will be blogging the match from the other side of the pond.
10:19 PM
But fear not – the Telegraph has a reporter on the ground
Jamie Johnson reports from Washington DC
More bad news from Washington DC where play will not resume before 6pm local time. That’s 11pm in the UK. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning in the area.
The player’s lounge is opposite the media centre, so I can happily report that after taking photographs of the lightning, Raducanu retired inside for a hot beverage.
10:19 PM
A further announcement
No play before 11pm BST. Hard to see what conditions are like because this is what happens when it rains on Amazon, who don’t have reporters and a normal studio/presenter set-up but just have the matches, as it closes the live feed and treats us to this:
10:03 PM
It’s still raining
At William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center and there will be no play until 10.30pm BST at the earliest. With Nick Evans’ match still to be finished before Raducanu vs Samsonova can start, we might be in for a long evening.
Jamie Johnson reports from Washington DC:
A message has just come through from tournament organisers saying there will be no play before 5:30pm local time (10:30pm UK).
Raducanu has her shoes off, feet up and is on Facetime. She tells the Telegraph she’s hoping to get on court this evening.
09:43 PM
There might be quite a delay
Jamie Johnson reports from Washington
Dan Evans was winning the first set of his Citi Open quarter final against Yoshihito Nishioka 6-5 … and then the storm came.
Play has now been suspended in Washington DC, where it is still 32 degrees, but with dark clouds overhead.
Emma Raducanu is in the player’s lounge chatting with members of her team, but it’s not looking likely that she’ll be on court soon. The heavens have just opened.
08:45 PM
Good evening
It was after take 18 of Helter Skelter that Ringo Starr uttered his famous cry: “I’ve got blisters on my fingers.” It is not recorded how the Beatle overcame this distressing affliction for all manual workers – surgical spirit? Friar’s Balsam? Elastoplast? A potion of Calamine lotion? Meths? There are myriad ‘cures’ for the complaint that may prove useful to Emma Raducanu who grittily came through her second round match against Camila Osorio last night, taking 165 minutes to win 7-6, 7-6, with a palm blain that was straight out of the Exorcist. A cornucopia of treatments ancient and modern but will any work in time?
Tonight, she faces the Russian world No28 Liudmila Samsonova who, had she retained her Italian citizenship, would have been allowed to play at Wimbledon this year, instead of being banned, where she made the fourth round in 2021 as a wildcard, just like Raducanu. She has a formidable serve and is content to stick to the baseline to wear her opponents down with powerful groundstrokes. Ordinarily Raducanu would try to manoeuvre her from side to side before unrolling one of those … ahem … blistering backhand winners but we just don’t know if she will be physically capable of going deep in points, games and sets.
Having said that, she says she takes comfort for surviving yesterday’s ordeal with her sore hand in sweltering heat. “For me it was a pretty monumental effort to really get through that,” Raducanu said on Thursday.
“There were many moments in both sets where you want to go for the easy option of trying to finish the point early, but, yeah, I’m just really pleased and proud of how I dug in when it really mattered.
“It was three hours on the court, and I actually warmed up for like an hour this morning. It just gives you a lot of confidence coming through a match like that.”
