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‘Drench’ Open: Roland Garros schedule in chaos

Ros Satar
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By Ros Satar

  • After yesterday’s washout the draw gets backed up rain halts play after just two hours.
  • Top halves of the men’s and women’s draw incomplete as Round 4 matches are held over
  • Andy Murray’s quarter-final postponed

PARIS, FRANCE – Doing a more passable impersonation of the mythical city of Atlantis, the French Open was once more hit by rain delays, with just two main draw singles matches being completed, held over from Sunday.

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With no play at all on Monday, and now just two matches from Sunday’s schedule being completed, the draw begins to look very messy for the top halves of both the women’s and the men’s singles, as play was washed out in Paris for the first time since 2000.

The bottom half’s quarter-finals will now be a day late, but the pressure will be on to complete the fourth round, and players will have to play consecutive days if a Saturday and Sunday finish are to be achieved, with the top half men potentially having to play four best of five matches in five days.

Predictably the rage around the roof, or lack thereof is going to pick up pace. Tournament Director Guy Forget confirmed that work on a new roof had started over the past two years, but French bureaucracy has held plans up.

Forget, who spoke to journalists, as reported in Sport 360o at the French Open on Monday, said:  “For those in our country who are still doubting on the necessity to expand, to modernize our stadium, I think right now the fact, you know, there is proof that it’s a necessity and we have to do it.

“We have talked about that roof in Paris 15 years ago already. It’s a long process. Once again, I have joked about it the other day, saying things were slow, a bit slow in France. But, you know, today I think is the day to just say ‘stop’.”

The women in the top half have the same issue – although perhaps it is less of an issue as they are used to playing 4 days in a row if they go deep in a tournament.

The new schedule has been released (Check that and the latest state of both draws ) with all the remaining fourth round matches for the top halves scheduled across four courts and the held over quarter-final delayed from Sunday to be played between Sam Stosur and Tsvetana Pironkova.

Stosur beat Simona Halep coming back from 3-5 down in the interrupted first set to romp through the resulting first set tie-break and closing out the second set for a 7-6(0_ 6-3 victory. Pironkova, who was struggling with injury when her match was suspended against Agnieszka Radwanska won 10 games on the trot to take the second set and the lead before Radwanska got on the board, before beating the No. 2 seed 2-6 6-3 6-3.

Weather apps have ever been more in demand, with opinions ranging from the weather looking dry but miserable, to rain until Saturday.

Play is scheduled to begin on all courts at 11am (10am BST).