Stephens suffers first round exit

Second-seed American Sloane Stephens suffered a first-round exit as rain forced players indoors at the Auckland Classic on Wednesday and cast a cloud over the remainder of the tournament.

An intense storm has settled over the north of New Zealand and is threatening to force organisers to play the remainder of the tournament at indoor training courts, where there is no capacity for spectators.

That unwanted scenario appeared to have an impact on former US Open champion Stephens, who paid for a slew of mistakes in a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) loss to Spanish qualifier Rebeka Masarova.

Only five singles matches were completed on day three, with former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin not as ruffled by the shift indoors, seeing off China's Wang Xinyu 7-6 (8/6), 6-3.

It sets up the most anticipated second-round match on Thursday, with Kenin to face top-seeded fellow American Coco Gauff.

Kenin hoped she would benefit from having sampled the slicker indoor courts, with world number seven Gauff having won her opening match outdoors the night before.

"I'm happy to get the win, in the conditions it wasn't easy, so I had to adjust pretty fast and I'm happy I was able to do it," Kenin said.

"It's unfortunate we had to go indoors, but it was less windy, so that's a problem I didn't need to worry about."

The first two days of the tournament were also marred by rain, with seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and Gauff among players forced to endure multiple stoppages in play.

Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin was hopeful the latter stages of the tournament could be completed outdoors but the next two days appeared bleak.

He conceded there is a likelihood all eight second-round matches will be played indoors on Thursday.

Lamperin said he had consulted with players, who preferred having matches spread through the week, rather than shoehorned into a packed schedule at the weekend.

"It is very unstable. There is a lot of rain that we can expect but we have this contingency plan to make sure the tournament can go ahead," he said.