The French Open is now the only grand slam without any covered courts, with the roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium in NY due to be operational for the first time at this year’s US Open. Guy Forget, the tournament director, said after yesterday’s wash-out that he did not think it would be fair to ask any players to play best-of-five-set matches on more than two days in a row.
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No play was possible on day nine due to heavy rain in Paris, with top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams seeing their fourth-round matches put back.
The outlook for Tuesday is slightly better, but with showers predicted for the morning before a band of rain arrives in the afternoon, the potential of outstanding last 16 matches to played on Wednesday is a very real scenario.
Rain is predicted for at least two of the next three days.
“It’s a disappointment. They need a retractable roof”, said her mother, unwittingly tapping into a hot debate.
The last total wash-out in Paris was May 30, 2000, according to organizers. The schedule for Tuesday now has top-ranked Novak Djokovic against 14th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in the first match on Chatrier, playing for a place in the quarterfinals.
While the grumbling was audible on Monday, those safely into the quarterfinals get a further upper hand: No. 2 seed Andy Murray, defending champion Stan Wawrinka, American Shelby Rogers and Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza.
Djokovic will be poised to become the first man to win $100 million in prize money if he makes the quarter-finals for the 10th time. The world No. 1 follows Djokovic on center court Tuesday.
Women’s fourth-round matches were all due to be completed Monday, too.
Austrian 13th Dominic Thiem is up against unseeded Marcel Granollers with both players aiming to reach the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time.
The victor of that match will take on either Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro or Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, who put an end to Karin Knapp’s run which had seen the Italian take out an injured Victoria Azarenka in the first round.
In-form Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens, who knocked out Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the first round, faces America’s Madison Keys, the 15th seed. The 34-year-old takes on Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina who is being advised in Paris by Justine Henin, one of Williams’ former great rivals on the tour and a four-time French Open champion.
The French Open is the only major tournament without a structure for play to continue under rain.
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In women’s singles, two fourth-round matches – Simona Halep vs. Samantha Stosur and Tsvetana Pironkova vs. Agnieszka Radwanksa – were pulled off court unfinished on Sunday evening because of rain and darkness.
