16 Mar 2021

America's Cup: Team New Zealand vs Luna Rossa live updates

6:19 pm on 16 March 2021

Team New Zealand won race 9 today, putting them one race away from retaining the Auld Mug.

In what was a thrilling ninth race of the Cup match, Luna Rossa held a narrow lead through each of the first four legs in the six leg race.

Decreasing winds this afternoon however meant race 10 had to be postponed to tomorrow.

Yesterday's two races saw Team NZ break the deadlock with come-from-behind performances in races 7 and 8 of the 13-race series.

Despite twice being bettered off the start line by Luna Rossa on Monday, the Cup holders held their nerve on both occasions to eventually get past and cross the finish in front.

The Cup hosts made the first official pass of the match stick on leg three of the day's first race, pulling away from the challenger to claim victory by 58 seconds - and the day's second race proved much more dramatic.

A costly error saw the New Zealanders fall back to more than four minutes behind their Italian competitors as the boat lost speed and dropped off foils in leg two, but as the wind continued to drop on course the room for mistakes also narrowed, Luna Rossa themselves dropping off their foils as they approached the third gate.

Team NZ managed to catch up on their rival, eventually extending their own lead to about four minutes in the final leg. The dramatic race had world media saying it was "bizarre" and "unprecedented" but exploded the Cup to life.

Read back through today's live updates to see how it unfolded: