Heavy rain brought more havoc to the French Open yesterday with the scheduled start time delayed, leaving the organizers’ hopes of playing 66 matches looking decidedly optimistic.
The tournament was already facing a backlog after just over four hours of play were possible on Sunday.
Temperatures also plummeted to a chilly 12?C, although forecasters expect highs of about 24?C by the weekend.
Photo: AFP
When the rain relented, Andy Murray and defending champion Stan Wawrinka were due to start their campaigns against a pair of fiery Czechs.
Second seed Murray, a three-time semi-finalist in Paris, was due to takes on 37-year-old Radek Stepanek, the oldest man in the draw and one of a record 51 men over the age of 30 to start the first round.
Wawrinka, who shattered Novak Djokovic’s latest attempt to complete the career Grand Slam with victory in last year’s final, was due to take on Lukas Rosol.
Rosol famously defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012 and was involved in a bad-tempered clash with Murray in Munich last year when the Scot told the Czech that “everyone hates you.”
Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori was due to complete his match with Italy’s Simone Bolelli.
Nishikori was leading 6-1, 7-5, 2-1 when play was halted on Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.
In the women’s singles on Sunday, last year’s runner-up Lucie Safarova won the first eight games in her 6-0, 6-2 win over Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko.
Safarova, the 11th-seeded Czech whose form has been compromised this year by a bacterial infection, needed just 56 minutes to beat world No. 223 Diatchenko, who was playing for the first time since injuring her left foot at last year’s US Open.
In the men’s singles, Benoit Paire, the French 19th seed, gave the hosts a winning start with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over Moldovan qualifier Radu Albot.
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The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite