NEW YORK, 5 September 2003 — An injured umpire, a damaged net and yet another rain interruption continued the US Open water torture for Japan’s Ai Sugiyama and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone at the shower-marred Grand Slam event yesterday.

After beginning their fourth-round match Monday, the two have been locked in what appears to be a never-ending duel to reach a quarterfinal matchup against US sixth seed Jennifer Capriati.

Sugiyama, the 15th seed, and 32nd-ranked Schiavone managed to play five games during a break in the showers before being chased off for the fifth time with Sugiyama leading 7-6 (7 5), 5-7, 2-0.

“I’ve never seen this,” said Sugiyama’s coach and mother, Fusako Sugiyama. “Incredible.” After rain delayed their restart yesterday by nearly four hours, Sugiyama and Schiavone had to wait for a faulty net to be repaired on the dry court.

When they resumed, Schiavione won 12 of the first 14 points to capture the second set. “She was not nervous before the match (resumed),” the elder Sugiyama said. “But when I saw her face on the court, she seemed uptight while Schiavone was more relaxed. “What happened after that? Schiavone raised her level and Ai couldn’t respond. Ai should be more aggressive and start with more confidence.”

Schiavone surrendered a break in the second game of the third set. In the next game, an errant ball struck chair umpire Linda Welch in the glasses, leaving a cut on her nose and above her left eye. “If I can get the bleeding to stop, I can see OK,” Welch said, trying to keep the match going. But moments later, the rain returned. “What else can happen, huh?” Welch said.

Rain halted the Sugiyama-Schiavone match three times Monday, the last with the score 6-6 entering a first-set tie-breaker. Play resumed yesterday and Sugiyama served for the match but was broken just before rain halted matters with the Asian ace ahead 7-6 (7 5), 5-4.

A bid to continue Wednesday ended with rain arriving as players walked onto the court. They had not been made a scheduling priority, so a precious window of opportunity to squeeze in time on the court was lost.

They might have finished their match Wednesday during a break in the rain that saw world No. 1 Kim Clijsters and French fifth seed Amelie Mauresmo play for 10 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Between the raindrops, Sugiyama, 28, is trying to match her best Slam showing from the 2000 Australian Open quarterfinals. She had her best US Open result by simply reaching the round of 16. Coach Sugiyama said her daughter has the stamina to handle the stress, her resolve having been tested in March at Scottsdale when she won her biggest singles crown on a day when she played two singles and two doubles matches, spending a total of six hours on the court.

Russian seventh seed Anastasia Myskina completed a 7-6 (7 2), 6-1 fourth-round victory over France’s Mary Pierce here yesterday concluding a rain-dogged match that began Monday. Myskina next faces Belgian second seed Justine-Henin Hardenne, the French Open winner, in the quarterfinal.

Myskina, 22, matched her best Grand Slam showing, an Australian Open quarterfinal run, by rising to 3-1 lifetime against Pierce. Pierce, 28, rated 64th, would have become the second-lowest ranked of any US Open quarterfinalist in the past 20 years, higher only than a 17-year-old Venus, 67th in 1997.

Rain delayed the start of play for the fourth day running at a chaotic US Open yesterday. A brief respite in the wet New York weather had left organizers hopeful of opening proceedings with top seed Clijsters’s quarterfinal against Mauresmo. But further drizzle shortly before the start put paid to that, leaving the last grand slam of the year in limbo once more.

To add to the sense of farce at Flushing Meadows, the Grandstand showcourt was deemed unplayable for the first match of the day because of a problem with water seepage. It left Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Paradorn Srichaphan facing a last-minute change to court 11 as they aim to finish their rain-hit fourth-round match — originally scheduled for first on Grandstand.

The loss of Grandstand is one of a number of problems facing the United States Tennis Association (USTA), which has attracted criticism from players and fans this week. Only four singles matches have been completed since Monday because of severe rain delays, forcing officials to seriously consider holding the men’s final on Monday, Sept. 8.

They have said they need to complete the men’s fourth round by Thursday night if they are to avoid taking the tournament into a third week.

The USTA were, however, clinging to the possibility of a break in the clouds later in the day that would allow them to bring some order to the schedule.

As an emergency measure, the USTA confirmed yesterday an impromptu evening session had been added today to help clear the backlog of matches. The session will feature the women’s semifinals and will begin at 1930 (2330 GMT) local time.

The first round of the junior boys and girls singles has been moved to an indoor venue in Port Chester, New York.