For the fourth-round men and women-and that included top seed Serena Williams as well as Djokovic-it was becoming essential to complete their matches, or they and the tournament faced back-to-back matches for the rest of the week.
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Paris: World number one Novak Djokovic dropped the first set of his French Open last-16 clash against Roberto Bautista Agut before heavy rain came to his rescue Tuesday.
French Open quarterfinalist Stosur is set to face world’s number 102 Tsvetana Pironkova, who proved to be more than her rank after crushing number 2 Agnieszka Radwanska with a final score of 2-6 6-3 6-3.
Two days of continuous rain meant disgruntled fans had no place for shelter when the skies opened up.
Holders Serena Williams and Stan Wawrinka and British second seed Andy Murray, who takes on local favourite Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals, are also on the day’s schedule.
That break in tension worked for him as he levelled his match with Bautista and walked off court leading the Spaniard before play was stopped once again.
“I have the feeling I played three matches against him”, a grinning Djokovic told the crowd after donning a yellow rain hat during his victory speech.
Cancelling of the matches, or any live event for that matter, also means a hard time for TV rights holders who resorted to playing French Open matches from even a year ago, as news of play suspended scrolled across the screen at the bottom.
Halep said she was not the kind of player to complain but felt conditions were not good enough.
French Open organizers have announced the cancellation of all matches Monday at Roland Garros because of persistent rain forecast to last all day.
Djokovic wasted no time taking the third set, winning the opening two games, but he has not found his best form yet this tournament and the fourth was a struggle. “I think they care about other things”.
While her sister was having an interesting day, Serena Williams had to deal with another cancellation of her match against Elina Svitolina.
Williams needs one more major tournament victory to match Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles.
After her 6-4, 6-4 second-round loss to Timea Bacsinszky, the 2014 Wimbledon finalist says “tennis is 90 percent mental” and that “the brain is like a muscle” that needs workouts.
The French Open suffered its first washout since 2000 on Monday when all scheduled matches were cancelled due to heavy rain, and there could be more problems on Tuesday with further rain expected.
She then said: “I’m just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain”.
Bertens reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating 15th-seeded Madison Keys of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-3.
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The 29-year-old will cross the $100 million career prize money barrier if he makes a 10th Roland Garros quarter-final.
