The force of mother nature is threatening to turn this year’s French Open into one of the most problematic in history as players hit out at the organisers of tournament.
For the third day running, matches at the tournament have been severely disrupted due to the rainy conditions. On Monday the entire day of play was cancelled for the first time since May 30th 2000. The tournament enjoyed slightly better fortunes on Tuesday with two matches finishing before the rain struck once again, forcing Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and Andy Murray to wait another day to continue their campaigns.
The decision to continue some matches in the light rain has triggered a series of sharp criticisms from top-10 players Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, who both lost their matches.
“I’m just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain. I mean, it’s not a 10,000 tournament. It’s a Grand Slam. How can you allow players to play in the rain?” Radwanska said following her three sets loss.
“The second set it was (raining) — we played pretty much in the rain. I don’t know who allows us to play in that kind of conditions.”
Radwanska, who was leading her fourth round match 6-3, 3-0, before rain delayed proceedings on Sunday, revealed that the damp conditions had a negative impact on her hand.
The outspoken words from Radwanska was backed up by similar ones said by world No.6 Simona Halep, who lost in straight sets to Samantha Stosur. The Romanian, who recently won her 12th WTA title at the Madrid Open, said that she was on the verge of getting injured because of the tricky conditions.
“No one cares about the players in my opinion. I don’t care that I lost the match today, but I was close to get injured with my back, so that’s — that’s a big problem.” Halep said.
“But like I said, no one cares. We have just to go and play.”
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) is yet to respond to the comments made by Radwanska and Halep.
Not everybody has such strong words for Guy Forget and his team at Roland Garros. Unsurprisingly the two winners on Tuesday, Sam Stosur and Tsvetana Pironkova, were more calm about the state of the courts at Roland Garros.
“We have played in all sorts of conditions. Usually if the court is not fit for play, like if it’s slippery, they would cancel the match right away. But today the court was still hanging in, it was okay, we could have played and so we did.” The Bulgarian world No.102 said about the surface.
The early end of play on Tuesday has dramatically increased the probability of the men’s final taking place on Monday. There is still a quartet of fourth round matches to be completed. One of those include Novak Djokovic, who is currently leading Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 4-1, in his match.
Wednesday’s weather forecast is projected to be a significant improvement compared to recent days. Norwegian weather site yr.no has predicted no rain tomorrow with the majority of the day remaining cloudy but dry.
Wednesday’s order of play
