Heavy showers washed out the matches to be played on Tuesday at the French Open, causing delays. Multiple matches were unfinished, the rest postponed for the next day. The matches that had already begun were disrupted a couple of times, thereafter cancelled.
This has caused a horrible mess. The terrible weather has been a worry right from the scratch of this year’s tournament. On Monday, all the matches were cancelled, without a single ball being hit.
With the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and now even US Open having a retractable roof, the French Open remains the only Grand Slam without a roof. Not just without a roof, but also without lights, so play stops at 9:00 PM. And with weather like this in May-June, there’s nothing but chaos for everyone involved.
It has left the players, spectators, and the fans fuming. More rain in the forecast for the current week takes all of it from worse to worst. It just makes match scheduling even more troublesome for the organizers.
Following were the consequences of Tuesday’s weather–the quarterfinals Richard Gasquet vs Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka vs Albert Ramos-Vinolas are postponed until Wednesday, meaning an extra day off.
The matches in progress were stopped twice, thereafter cancelled. A bunch of matches began but were temporarily suspended a couple of times, before finally getting cancelled. Novak Djokovic and Roberto Bautista Agut played two and a half sets, Dominic Thiem and Marcel Granollers split one sets each, and Tomas Berdych vs David Ferrer and David Goffin vs Ernests Gulbis played a few games. After that they had to walk off the court, because it kept pouring again and again.
With scheduling like this, there is a high chance that the players might have to play for consecutive days if the officials plan to finish it on Sunday. But with this weather, the only option left is for the final to take place on Monday, else the players will have to put in a lot of hard work. There are rarest of chances that the players might have to play multiple matches on a single day.
If there was a roof over one court or two, some matches could haveve been played and completed, reducing the number cancellations that have happened over the years. Like In 2012, the final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was played on two days because of erratic rain. That could’ve been avoided if there was a roof.
And also with lights on courts, matches can played be even in the night when it’s not raining. That would also lower the chances of matches being pushed to the next day for no reason. The best example being last year’s semifinal between Murray and Djokovic, suspended due to bad light. As a result, Djokovic had to play three days straight.
The roof would also create better conditions for players to play in, rather than playing in less preferred damp conditions.
The construction of a roof over Court Philippe Chartrier is planned by to be completed 2020.
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