Paris (AFP)
"We hope to finish the tournament Saturday for women, and Sunday for men," said Roland-Garros director Guy Forget after the postponement to Thursday of all the games originally scheduled Wednesday because of the rain and while the weather forecast is "difficult" Friday.
Thursday should in theory be devoted to the semi-finals. In the end, the last four quarterfinals were played, two women and two men at noon.
The four semi-finals, including the long-awaited one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, should follow the next day: it remains to be seen whether the already announced rainy weather will allow it, and, if so, which courts will be mobilized.
"The difficulty is to advance the tournament, with the players, and especially for the players, a similar recovery time.We hope to finish the tournament Saturday for women, and Sunday for men. tomorrow (Thursday) are good, for Friday much less.We are studying all possible scenarios that will allow us to advance this tournament in the best possible way, "says Forget.
Roland-Garros is considering two main tracks for Friday's schedule: playing the men's semi-finals on the Central and the women's semifinals on the Suzanne-Lenglen, "but also why not play on a third court, the Simonne-Mathieu, given the climatic conditions that will be difficult, "sketches Forget, stating that the tournament" will only take the decision tomorrow. "
- Last edition without roof -
"If things go wrong, the ideal is that both players can have the same rest time, and the best way to achieve this is that they play their match exactly at the same time", one on the Lenglen, the other on the Mathieu, he develops. "There would not be one player who could finish 24 hours before the other, that's really the kind of thing we want to avoid, we know that because of the weather conditions, there are players who risk potentially playing three days in a row is already a big problem, we would not want to add another one. "
"Historically, a men's final has already been played on a Monday (the 2012 final between Nadal and Djokovic ended on Monday, ed), we can imagine the same thing for the final women in case of a disaster scenario", evokes the tournament director.
"We are going to try to make the best possible choices given the circumstances, we are lucky to have three magnificent main courts, and if that were the case, I think there would be nothing degrading to play on the Simonne-Mathieu, which some describe as the most beautiful court in the world ", underlines Forget.
This is the first time in three years (May 30, 2016) that no ball is played of the day at Roland Garros.
The Paris tournament is the last Grand Slam not yet having a roof. He lives precisely his last edition without his court Central is equipped.
? 2019 AFP