Day Four matches at the China Open ATP tournament have been cancelled due to continual rain, announced the organizing committee late on Thursday.

Ed Hardisty, the ATP supervisor, told Xinhua that he had consulted with Ekkehard Rathgeber, the chief director of the Asian tennis event, and the Player Manager before deciding to cancel the matches.

The cancellation was announced after six hours away from the original kicking off time as a second round match between Chinese Wang Yu and Peter Wessels from the Netherlands had been scheduled to start 1300 local time (0500 GMT).

Four matches on the Day Four schedule will be postponed to Friday with some players having to make their quarter-final encounters on the same day of racing past the second round.

Wang Yu, the sole home survivor in the men's singles last 16, has been bothered for the second time in two match days by unforeseen troubles of playing timetable as his first round clash against Luka Gregorc of Slovenia had been delayed for two hours because of raindrops wetting the court.

Other matches halted on Thursday pit seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny from Russia and Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, Japanese Toshihide Matsui and second-seeded Argentine Guillermo Coria, as well as top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain and Justin Gimelstob from the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2005)