A competitor lambasted the French Open as “one big circus” Thursday as soggy weather once again came back to exasperate players seeking a foothold in the semifinals of the rain-hit claycourt major.
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In front of a couple of hundred spectators huddled into a damp and chilly Court Suzanne Lenglen, the Austrian took an early 3-1 lead with a break, but Goffin then took control winning five out of the next six games to take the first set 6-4.
After missing a break point opportunity, Djokovic went to slam his racquet into the ground – only to see it slip out of the back of his hand and fly past the official. “I threw a racquet on the ground and it slipped and nearly hit the line umpire”.
PARIS World number one Novak Djokovic will play his French Open semi-final on Friday away from the main show court after organisers were forced to stage four semi-finals on the same day in the rain-ravaged grand slam tournament.
The tennis ace soon offered an apology to chair umpire Eva Asederaki and escaped with a warning, Sport24 reported.
He said: “In the whole second set I didn’t really think that I’m going to win this match because he was just on top of me”.
“But it just was an unlucky situation at the end of the second set for me”.
Djokovic had little trouble with Tomas Berdych, beating him for the 11th time in succession to move through to a semi-final against Dominic Thiem today.
Williams was dangerously close to being unceremoniously ousted in straight sets by the unheralded 21-year-old Russian before staving off defeat and finishing with a strong third set.
With all the rain playing havoc with the schedule this week, organizers have adjusted by putting men’s and women’s semifinals on the same day.
Something, perhaps, for her surprising semifinal opponent, 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens, to feed off.
“I’m very pleased to be in semifinals of another Grand Slam”, Djokovic said afterward. An absolute circus. “We’ve been playing two and half sets like that.”
The Czech had a point.
Leander Paes inched closer towards completing a “Career Slam” in the mixed doubles along with Swiss partner Martina Hingis but may find compatriot Sania Mirza in the way as the two Indian players reached the semi-finals.
The No. 12-seeded Goffin won the first set and then had set point at 7-6 in the tiebreaker in the second set.
“The way that the schedule has been going on in the second week means there is not much time to really reflect on what you have done”, he said.
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Serbia’s Novak Djokovic stretches to return the ball in the fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Unseeded Paes and Hingis scored a dominating 6-4, 6-3 win over fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the quarterfinals of the clay court Major.
