With a victory over Marcos Baghdatis in the second round French Open, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would become only the third Frenchman with 100 wins in Grand Slam tournaments.
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Forget said he was optimistic that the matches would be played Tuesday and that with two days of matches on secondary courts, the tournament would get back on track.
Bertens defeated American 15th seed Madison Keys 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
After conceding the opening set in damp conditions on Tuesday, Serbian Djokovic played tighter and had won the second set and was 4-1 ahead in the third when rain cut short his victory charge on day 10 of the championships. There was no guarantee that Tuesday would be better: Weather forecasts for coming days were grim, with more downpours expected Tuesday before a hoped-for break in the clouds Wednesday.
While a handful of sodden spectators sat hunched under umbrellas on Court Philippe Chatrier watching a replay of Gasquet’s emotional win over Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori a day earlier, thousands of others took shelter by cramming into the corridors under the main showcourts.
Wasting no time at all after waiting two days to play, Serena Williams moved closer to her record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam title by easily reaching the French Open quarterfinals.
Adroitly sidestepping a question about Trump at the French Open, where Williams is the defending champion, she says she is “not involved at all” in politics.
The world number 58, who knocked out Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the first round, has now won 11 matches in succession.
The backlog also includes two fourth-round women’s singles matches – Simona Halep vs. Samantha Stosur, and Tsvetana Pironkova vs. Agnieszka Radwanksa – that were pulled off court unfinished on Sunday evening because of rain and darkness.
Following the first French Open washout in 16 years yesterday, there was more of the same today with the two separate suspensions as well as a delayed start allowing for only two hours’ play.
“I feel like I made a tremendous amount of errors”, she said.
All of Monday’s scheduled matches at Roland Garros were washed away by the worst weather of what has been a consistently wet event this year.
Under the original schedule, all of the fourth round was to be completed on Monday, leaving Tuesday and Wednesday for the quarter-finals. “If they do have, eventually at one point, to play two matches, then I guess the fittest guy will be rewarded for it”.
Radwanska is trying to reach the quarterfinals for the second time in Paris as she holds a 6-2, 3-0 lead over her 102th-ranked Bulgarian rival.
Novak Djokovic, the current top-ranked player, can win his 50th match at Roland Garros by defeating qualifier Steve Darcis of Belgium.
Similarly, while Serena’s showdown against 18th-seed Elina Svitolina and Serena’s sister Venus Williams‘ contest against No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky were rained out Monday as well, they’re at least on to the fourth round and thus, in better shape than the other side of the women’s draw.
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Defending men’s champion Stan Wawrinka is in quarter-final action against Albert Ramos-Vinolas, with the victor to play Murray or Gasquet.
