French Open: Everything canceled - Thiem and Zverev only on Thursday
Rain in Paris - in the late afternoon all scheduled matches on Wednesday were finally canceled. Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev will only be able to compete on Thursday.
by SID
last edit: Jun 05, 2019, 05:11 pm
The sky over Paris was gray, it was raining ceaselessly, on the horizon it was unlikely that anything would change. At 4.30pm, the organizers of the French Open also had no hope: they canceled all matches scheduled for Wednesday and postponed them to Thursday, including the quarterfinals between Alexander Zverev (Hamburg) and Novak Djokovic (Serbia). The weather forecast is then significantly cheaper.
The postponement also affected the men's match between last year's finalist Dominic Thiem (Austria) and Karen Khatchanov (Russia). But it will be particularly tough for the women: According to the schedule, the two semi-finals should take place on Thursday, now the quarterfinals between Simona Halep (Romania) and Amanda Anisimova (USA) as well as Madison Keys (USA) and Ashleigh Barty (Australia) be made up.
In men's singles, the players in the top half of the tableau are disadvantaged due to the cancellation and postponement to Thursday. While the superstars Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Roger Federer (Switzerland) can contest their semi-finals on Friday after a two-day break and have more time to relax with a view to the final on Sunday, the opponent now has to play on Thursday, Friday and Sunday in the final start.
This is also due to the non-harmonized schedule of the French Open, unlike Wimbledon, the quarterfinals for men and women are not compressed in one day. On Thursday, usually only the semi-finals of the women are scheduled, the men should actually have no play, with them the round of the last four takes place on Friday.
# BETATHOMEFO #
There will be a roof in Paris in 2021
Furthermore, Roland Garros, as the last of the four Grand Slam hosts, does not yet have a roof. The first work for this has already been carried out, but in contrast to the previous announcements, it should now only be completed in 2021 instead of next year, as the organizers confirmed during the week. A second roof has just been inaugurated in Wimbledon, the US Open in Flushing Meadows has had two covered courts since last year, the Australian Open in Melbourne even three.
Roland Garros limited himself to a covered stadium in the course of his already started renovation measures, which according to the tournament organizers should not exceed 400 million euros. The main square Philippe Chatrier is said to be able to be provided with an extendable roof structure. Eleven umbrella-like elements should then slide over the court on a metal frame within fifteen minutes.