NATCHEZ &045; The 26th annual AmSouth Bank Cancer Tennis Tournament was moved up a few weeks by tournament organizers to take advantage of the cooler weather and in hopes of avoiding the rain.

The temperature was cooler on Friday and Saturday than it was when the tournament was held in late May and early June over the years, also last Wednesday and Thursday when there were record highs in the lower 90s. The rain was not able to stay away from Duncan Park and Beau Pr’s tennis courts on Saturday &045; not even when play was just getting underway in the morning.

&uot;We did have an hour-and-a-half delay,&uot; tournament co-director Noreen Pyron said. &uot;That pushed us back.&uot;

So did two bouts of heavy rain and thunderstorms that eventually led to play being halted at 6:40 p.m.

Play was first stopped at 4:37 p.m. and then finally resumed at 6:10 p.m. Unfortunately, more rain started falling and just 20 minutes later play was halted once again. Just minutes later, Pyron officially ended play for the day.

And while many of the divisions’ winner’s and consolation brackets were able to get through the semifinals before the rain arrived once again in the late afternoon, a few matches that were either just starting or were about to start will have to wait until 8 a.m. today. The first of the finals matches will start at 9 a.m.

&uot;We’ll just pick up where we left off and play all day tomorrow,&uot; Pyron said.

Despite all that, 118 players from Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee have enjoyed a good time and played some good tennis so far.

&uot;Last year we had 98,&uot; Pyron said. &uot;There are a lot more local players in the semifinals and finals. One person said there seems to be more local players this year than there have been. That’s a good thing.&uot;

And there have been a fair share of upsets in the first two days of the tournament.

&uot;In Mixed 8.0 our No. 1 seed got beat right off the bat today,&uot; Pyron said.

That would be the team of Marla Flowers and Darla Vincent of Natchez, who lost to No. 3 seed Courtney Buckles of Baton Rouge and David McGraw of Prairieville, La., Saturday morning in a thrilling match that went to a third-set tiebreaker.

Buckles and McGraw won the match, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8.

Also on Saturday morning, Lindsay Devening and Lou Ellen Stout, both from Natchez, upset No. 1 seed Katie Freiberger and Sally Jones, both from Natchez, in the quarterfinals in the women’s 3.5 doubles, 6-4, 6-1.

Another upset occurred on Friday afternoon when Jeff Stanford of Natchez and Clark McCain of Winnsboro, La. stunned No. 1 seed Darrell Doane of Germantown, Tenn. and Paulo Teixeira of Memphis, Tenn., 6-2, 6-3 in the first round in the Men’s 4.0 Doubles.

And yet another upset occurred early Saturday afternoon in Men’s 3.5 Doubles as Jim Meyer and Obie Watts were leading No. 1 seed Jim Kelly and Michael Zibby in their semifinal match, 6-3, 4-1 when Kelly and Zibby retired from the match.

Opperman and Pyron got to the finals by upsetting No. 1 seed Suzan Chauvin Hogue of Vidalia, La., and Vincent in the semifinals, 7-5, 6-3. Martin and Talley had to rally in the final two sets to get to the finals, defeating Melissa Auler and Becky Begnaud 3-6, 7-6, 14-12 in the tiebreaker.