Live updates: ASB Classic women's tournament at Auckland's ASB Tennis Centre, Day Four

That will conclude tonight's coverage. Join us back here on day five for more from Auckland's ASB Classic Tennis Centre.

Emma Raducanu v Viktoria Kuzmova (6-0, 4-5)

9:56pm 

Kuzmova goes to 5-3 in the second set. Raducanu serving to save the set.

9:45pm 

Kuzmova has done well to recapture some momentum. She breaks in the second to take a 4-2 lead.

9:15pm 

Raducanu clinches the first set in just 23 minutes. Utter dominance from the Briton.

9:05pm

In other action, Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova has trumped Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania 6-4 6-1.

Meanwhile, Raducanu earns a consecutive break to move to 4-0. She's looking extremely comfortable.

9pm

Raducanu looking spry, breaks at her first opportunity to take a 2-0 lead.

8:45pm - We swiftly move to the next second round match, where British star Emma Raducanu squares off with Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia.

Coco Gauff beat Sofia Kenin (6-4, 6-4)

8:36pm

There it is, too much class from the No. 1 seed and Gauff is through to the quarter-finals.

8:25pm 

Excellent reponse from Kenin and we're all square at 4-4 in the second set.

7:54pm 

Gauff completes a convincing 6-4 opening set win.

7:40pm 

Meanwhile on the 'outer courts', Spain's Rebeka Masarova has beaten Anna Blinkova 6-1 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. 

Earlier, Danka Kovinic of Montenegro got the better of the US' Lauren Davis 4-6 6-3 6-2.

7:25pm

Gauff nabs the early break, up 3-1.

7:10pm

The Americans up are next, with No. 1 seed Gauff taking on compatriot Kenin. Both players straight into their warm-ups, there'll be little time for transitions after that lengthy rain delay.

Zhu Lin beats beat Venus Williams (3-6, 6-2, 7-5)

7pm 

Zhu pulls it off! Forces the error and closes out the match to bring Williams' time in Auckland to a close, perhaps for good.

6:45pm

Locked at 5-5 in the third set. Zhu saves three break points to hold serve. Williams will serve to stay in the match.

6:25pm 

Williams earns a critical break. She'll serve ahead 3-2.

6:20pm 

Neither player has taken control of this match, both hampered by errors. 2-2 here early in the third set.

6pm

Unforced errors prove costly for Williams, as Zhu locks up the second set 6-2 to force a third.

5:45pm

Okay, we are back. The rest of today's schedule will take place indoors, with organisers aiming to complete all of the second round ties tonight.

Williams and Zhu are poised to resume their match indoors.

4:50pm

This just in - the resumption of the match indoors is scheduled to start at approximately 5:45pm.

4:10pm

We have reports that Williams and Zhu will indeed be shifted indoors to escape the elements, which are gradually worsening.

Play is scheduled to resume at 5pm.

3:49pm

The grandstand match between Lauren Davis of the US and Montenegran Danka Kovinic has been moved indoors. Judging by the bleak forecast, we may see the same for Williams and Zhu. 

3:24pm

Williams hold serve but - wait for it - the rain is back. Both players biding their time courtside under umbrellas. 

Uh oh, the players are now heading backstage. Hold tight guys, we have another rain delay on our hands. Play is officially suspended.

3:13pm

Zhu breaks again to take a 4-1 lead in the second. Williams to serve, plenty of work ahead if she wants to close this match out and avoid a third set.

3:02pm

The wind has really picked up at centrecourt and made life tricky for both players, but at least the rain has cleared - for now, at least.

Breaks in both directions and it's 2-1 in Zhu's favour to start the second set, Venus to serve.

2:46pm 

Williams goes down the middle with her second serve to induce an error and claim the first set. 

2:41pm 

Williams breaks again, she'll serve for the first set up 5-3.

2:32pm 

Zhu breaks and Venus responds in turn, back to 3-3.

2:20pm 

Williams and Zhu going through some brief warm-ups after returning to the court. We'll be back underway shortly, with Zhu holding two break points and down 2-1 in the first set.

Zhu immediately breaks upon resumption of play and the score moves to 2-2 in the first set.

2:08pm

And it looks like conditions have improved enough for play to resume outside! 

Williams and Zhu should be back out on centre court shortly for a 2:15pm restart.

1:53pm

Play was supposed to restart at 1:45pm. That probably won't be on the outside courts though, so still we wait to see when they'll look to go inside.

1:30pm

Organisers are hopeful that play can resume if - and it's a big 'if' - the rain stops.

No word on when they'll look to take play indoors either.

1:10pm - RAIN STOPS PLAY

The rain has gotten heavier, so both players leave the court.

Remember, the contingency of playing on the indoor court is available, but will be a last resort.

1:03pm

Hold the phone. It's raining again. The umbrellas and towels are out.

Williams is 15-40 up in the fourth game, looking to break back. 

But play has come to a halt while we wait for the weather.

Sigh.

12:55pm

Zhu holds her own serve, and so does Williams in the third game to get on the board. Williams will have to break serve if she's to take this first set.

Williams 1
Zhu 2

12:47pm

And straight away, Zhu breaks serve to put Venus on the back foot!

Williams 0
Zhu 1

12:36pm

Hold that thought - we have play! So a few minutes late, but we'll take it.

Venus Williams will open play on centre court, taking on Zhu Lin of China!

12:34pm

So, 12:30 has come and gone, and no sign of play just yet.

No official word on when play will start, or when they'll move indoors.

As per usual, we'll update you as soon as possible.

11:52am

The official word is that play will attempt to start outside at 12:30pm.

So again we wait for conditions to improve.

The current schedule will see Venus Williams open the day against China's Zhu Lin on centre court.

Top seed Coco Gauff will face compatriot Sofia Kenin, before Emma Raducanu takes on Viktoria Kuzmova. In the night session, Leylah Fernandez will face Julia Grabher.

On the outer court, 2017 champion Lauren Davis will face Danka Kovinic as the pick of the action.

Stay tuned.

11:45am

Out on centre court, there are still puddles on the surface, but at the very least no rain is falling.

There are spectators in the grand stand, albeit with nothing to watch.

We're 15 minutes away from the scheduled start of play, but we'll wait and see what happens from here.

11:10am

Good morning! The bad news first up is that it's still raining in Auckland.

Inclement weather forced all of yesterday's action indoors, and we could be in for more of the same today.

There's still plenty of action that could take place though, with the likes of Venus Williams, Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu scheduled to play today, coming after the exit of second-seed Sloane Stephens yesterday.

It's a bit of a wait and see approach for now, but we'll have all the action as it comes!

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Kia ora, good morning and welcome to Newshub's live coverage of the ASB Classic women's tournament, entering the fourth day at Auckland's Stanley Street.

Rain has continued to plague the first event back from the COVID-19 pandemic, with all yesterday's play taking place on indoor practice courts at the ASB Tennis Centre. 

While the opening rounds of singles and doubles were finally completed, no second-round action was possible in singles and only one quarter-final match in doubles.

Organisers tried hard to offer spectators some matchplay on the outdoor Stadium Court, with Kuzmova v Raducanu remaining on the schedule until there was absolutely no hope of a break in the weather.

Three more singles seeds - Americans Sloane Stephens (second) and Bernarda Pera (fourth), and Chinese Xiyu Wang (fifth) - exited early, while New Zealand lost its last hometown hope, when Paige Hourigan lost her doubles opener.

Thursday should see all the remaining seeds in action, along with former champions Venus Williams and Lauren Davis, and Aussie Open champion Sofia Kenin, whose clash with top seed Coco Gauff should be a feature.

Organisers have optimistically scheduled a noon start on both outdoor courts.

Thursday's order of play is:

Stadium Court

Noon start

Williams (USA) v Zhu (China)

1-Gauff (USA) v Kenin (USA)

Kuzmova (Slovenia) v Raducanu (UK)

Grabher (Austria) v 3-Fernandez (Canada)

Contreras Gomez (Mexico)/Harrison (USA) v Kuzmova (Slovenia)/Rus (Netherlands)

Grandstand Court

Noon start

Davis (USA) v 7-Kovinic (Montenegro)

Blinkova v Masarova (Spain)

Muchova (Czech Republic) v Ruse (Romania)

8-Marino (Canada) v Bonaventure (Belgium)

Kato (Japan)/Sutjiadi (Indonesia) v Martincova (Czech Republic)/Ruse (Romania) 

Join us at noon for the start of play...