Rain continued to play havoc with the programme at the Qatar Open on Friday as only one of four scheduled quarter-finals reached a conclusion - Dominika Cibulkova progressing at Sam Stosur's expense.

Having caught up on second-round matches earlier in the day - Angelique Kerber's defeat to Daria Kasatkina the standout result - the tournament was forced into another reshuffle with two more last-eight ties in progress.

Third seed Cibulkova made the most of her early start by coming away with a 7-5 6-4 victory from her clash with Stosur, despite initially throwing away a two-break advantage in the opening set.

Cibulkova had the fresher legs after Stosur came through a match against Barbora Strycova just a few hours earlier.

Kasatkina's reward for seeing off the world number two was a quarter-final clash with Monica Puig, which was poised at 6-4 5-7 1-2 when the heavens opened once more.

Caroline Wozniacki - a straight-sets victor over Agnieszka Radwanska earlier on Thursday - and Lauren Davis had managed just one game when they were forced from the court, while second seed Karolina Pliskova and Zhang Shuai did not even make it out.

Tournament organisers hope to address the backlog with an earlier-than-scheduled start on Saturday (AEDT).