Rain has washed out Day 9 at Roland Garros, throwing the rest of the 2016 French Open and the title hopes of many players into massive chaos.
Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were due to play yesterday, as were the likes of Tomas Berdych, Dominic Thiem, Venus Williams, Madison Keys, Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep, with the latter two having their matches suspended on Sunday also due to poor weather.
It is the first time since this very day (May 30) in 2000 that a day has been washed out at Roland Garros, and should the poor weather conditions that have engulfed Paris throughout this fortnight continue, a Monday finish, even later, will be anything but inevitable.
Djokovic will look to continue taking advantage of a wide-open top half when he faces Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut today, with either Berdych or 2013 finalist David Ferrer set to await in the quarter-finals.
The Serb has seen his half of the draw open up with the withdrawal of nine-time champion Rafael Nadal due to a wrist injury, and the injury-enforced retirement of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was leading 5-2 in the opening set of his third round match against Ernests Gulbis before he was forced to pull the pin due to a leg injury.
The highest seed the Djoker can face en route to a possible fourth final at Roland Garros is either seventh seed Berdych, or 11th seed Ferrer, both of whom are to face off tonight (AEST).
Gulbis is due to face Belgian 12th seed David Goffin while the other top-half match that was scheduled to take place sees Spaniard Marcel Granollers, the beneficiary of Nadal’s withdrawal, face 13th seed Dominic Thiem.
From that quarter of the draw, there could be a possible first-time Grand Slam semi-finalist with only Gulbis having gone that far, when he lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals at Roland Garros just two years ago.
Already the quarter-finals in the bottom half have been decided with another Spaniard, Albert Ramos, to tackle defending champion Stan Wawrinka while the only local man left, Richard Gasquet, is up against second seed Andy Murray.
Ramos upset eighth seed Milos Raonic in straight sets to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final on his 19th attempt while Wawrinka required four sets to defeat Serb Viktor Troicki.
There was another upset in the bottom half as Gasquet reached his first French Open quarter-final at the expense of Kei Nishikori, the Frenchman having fallen in the fourth round in four of the last five years.
Murray, meanwhile, progressed after beating John Isner in straight sets; the result means that no American man has reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros since Andre Agassi did so in 2003.
Wawrinka is the only man left in the bottom half of the draw who has reached the final, and should again reach the championship match where Novak Djokovic looks set to await.
Though Djokovic will start favourite to finally complete his career Grand Slam, the Swiss can again stop him from completing that set like Rafael Nadal did many times to Roger Federer between 2005 and 2008 inclusive.
Women’s defending champion Serena Williams is also due to play tonight, taking on 18th seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine. Both scored straight sets victories over Kristina Mladenovic and Ana Ivanovic on Saturday respectively.
The winner of that match will take on either Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro or Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, who put an end to Karin Knapp’s run which had seen the Italian take out an injured Victoria Azarenka in the first round.
Serena’s elder sister Venus, trying to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in a decade, is up against last year’s semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky while 15th seed Madison Keys takes on Angelique Kerber’s first round victor, Kiki Bertens.
Two matches in the bottom half were complete before the heavens opened up, with Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza defeating 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to progress to the quarter-finals for the third straight year.
She next faces American surprise packet Shelby Rogers, who backed up her stunning three-set victory over dual-Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova by defeating Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Muguruza and Rogers will face off tonight (AEST) for a place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the Simona Halep-Samantha Stosur and Tsvetana Pironkova-Agnieszka Radwanska ties hang in the balance with both matches also set to be completed tonight.
Halep was leading Stosur 5-3 when play was called off while Radwanska was just three games away from beating Pironkova, taking the first set 6-2 and leading 3-0 in the second, when their match was also suspended.
Any chance the Pole has of inheriting the world number one ranking from Serena Williams appear all but shot for now, given the American’s relatively easy draw from here until at least the semi-finals where elder sister Venus is likely to await.
Assuming Radwanska does finish off the job against Pironkova, it will be just her second French Open quarter-final and it will guarantee at least one former Grand Slam finalist in the bottom half semi-final, though it is likely to be two given Muguruza should start favourite to defeat Rogers in her quarter-final match.
Halep, meanwhile, is on the verge of reaching the quarter-finals for the second time in three years and she along with Stosur are the only two players in the bottom half who have previously reached the final at Roland Garros.
And so, with rain having washed out Day 9 at the French Open, it looms as a huge Tuesday with up to thirteen singles matches (six men’s and seven’s women’s) to be played and, in the case of two women’s fourth round matches, completed.
Let’s hope they can at least make it on court tonight (AEST) before the weather in Paris gets worse.
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