Melbourne (AFP)
All matches of the first day of the Australian Open in progress or not yet started on the outdoor courts drowned in the rain are postponed, announced the organizers Monday early in the evening.
However, the program continues as planned on the three main courts which have a roof.
32 games will have to be reprogrammed. The match between Diego Schwartzman and Lloyd Harris, scheduled on court 7, was moved to the end of the program Monday under the roof of the Melbourne Arena.
In particular, Monday’s program canceled the parts of the French Ugo Humbert against John Millman, Corentin Moutet against Marin Cilic, Benoît Paire against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, Caroline Garcia against Madison Brengle, Fiona Ferro against Alison van Uytvanck and Pauline Parmentier against Qiang Wang . Quentin Halys' match against Filip Krajinovic was suspended when the two players were tied 3 points throughout the tie break in the first set.
Only Grégoire Barrère finished his match on Monday and qualified for the second round.
First drops fell at 2:39 pm (04:39 French), forcing the referee to suspend Roger Federer's match against Steve Johnson in the Rod Laver Arena for a few minutes, time to close the roof. The roofs of the Margaret Court Arena and the Melbourne Arena were also closed, without disrupting the program.
On the other hand, the games which had continued on the short annexes without roofs were finally suspended shortly after 3:00 p.m. (05:00 French time), when the rain suddenly intensified.
© 2020 AFP