Stosur took control of the first set and won a tiebreak before dominating the second set, winning 7-6(0), 6-3.
Advertisement
“Heavy, wet conditions like this don’t typically help me too much, but I think today I was able to use them better (than Halep)”.
Quote of the Day: “No one cares about the players, in my opinion. I don’t care that I lost the match today, but I was close to (getting) injured with my back”.
“I didn’t feel safe on court”, Halep told reporters.
The pair traded service games – with Stosur saving two break points – before rain halted play with Stosur up 3-2 and about to serve. Then, on Tuesday, Samantha Stosur entered the court more determined.
Radwanska and Halep’s exit meant that at least five of the top eight women’s seeds failed to make their allotted quarterfinal spots.
A furious Simona Halep has launched a stinging salvo at French Open organisers, questioning how fourth-round defeat to Samantha Stosur was allowed to be played in “impossible” conditions. Radwanska, the No. 2 seed, struggled with pain in her hand and played like someone who was unwilling to accept the bleak reality of her situation-that she’d have to win ugly in the red clay, while risking her body to do so.
“I’m just so surprised and angry, that, you know, we have to play in the rain”, fumed Radwanska.
“I mean, it’s not a 10,000 tournament, it’s a Grand Slam”, said Radwanska, referring to the lowest-level event in profession tennis.
Play resumed for a second time just after 3pm local time in Paris on Tuesday, following an earlier half-hour stint between the rain, but conditions remained heavy and drizzly.
“I think that we went on court when it wasn’t really playable because it was drizzling all the time”, said the Latvian. During one break, the top-seeded Djokovic, seeking to win a fourth consecutive major title and complete a career Grand Slam, wandered around Court Philippe Chatrier to check the weather, borrowing a green-and-orange Roland Garros umbrella from a fan.
If only Radwanska could have seen it that way she might have been able to take three games and get out of the rain with a straight-sets victory.
AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA: “Yeah, well, also in the morning, like, the second set it was – we play pretty much in the rain”.
She asked for a medical timeout after the third game of the decider to receive treatment on her right forearm and hand.
The loss keeps Halep, who made the 2014 French Open final, out of the quarterfinals for the sixth time in seven years at Roland Garros. Well, I had surgery few years ago and I couldn’t really play in that conditions. “End of story”, a fuming Radwanska added.
These two have played four times in the past, and Stosur has won three of those meetings.
The match started on Sunday evening and should the rain not started pouring down on the famous French tennis court, Halep might have now been in the quarter finals.
Pironkova is the first Bulgarian into the French Open quarterfinals in a decade.
Their match had been played in two spells between the rain with the first halted after 37 minutes with the top seed having dropped the first set.
Advertisement
The rain forced the scheduled quarter-finals between Andy Murray, the second seed, and Richard Gasquet and defending champion Stan Wawrinka’s clash against Albert Ramos-Vinolas back to today.
