Novak Djokovic’s desperation to beat the wretched weather at this French Open – it has barely stopped raining since Sunday night – at least got him ahead in the third set when his fourth-round match against Roberto Bautista Agut was postponed on Tuesday evening. Andy Murray, meanwhile, could only shuffle his feet back in the queue.
If the forecast for improved weather at the wettest open in 16 years is correct, Murray and Richard Gasquet should be able to start and finish their postponed quarter-final on Wednesday. The defending champion Stan Wawrinka and the unheralded Spaniard Albert Ramos-Viñolas will be similarly encouraged by the cloud prognosis. Others waiting to get on court include Serena Williams against Elina Svitolina, and Venus Williams against Timea Bacsinszky. But the meteorological tipsters have been as accurate this wet week as some political experts at the last general election.
Elsewhere at Roland Garros on Tuesday there was insurrection in the air. First Dominic Thiem, drenched, simply stopped playing in his match against Marcel Granollers on Court 2 at a set apiece, and David Goffin likewise went on strike on Court 1, arguing loudly with the chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore before he and Ernests Gulbis retired to the warmth of the players’ lounge, the Latvian three games up.
There were 22 matches postponed and 11 results, most significant the win by the world No 102, Tsvetana Pironkova, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, over the No2 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The Pole railed at having to play – “I’m just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain. I mean, it’s not a $10,000 tournament, it’s a grand slam. I cannot play in those conditions” – but her Bulgarian opponent was happy to resume a set and 3-0 down and said later: “I could say I’m surprised but I came here in good shape.”
Pironkova, a grass-court specialist, next plays the 2010 finalist, Sam Stosur – brought up on grass in Australia but a natural clay-courter – whose 7-6, 6-3 win over the No2 seed, Simona Halep, was a slightly lesser shock. The perennially nervous Stosur, seeded 21, came to Paris nursing a wrist injury but has hit freely through the gloom all week. “It was unfortunate I had to pull out of Strasbourg,” she said, “but I needed those days to recover. Thankfully, touch wood, it’s been OK so far.”
Djokovic and Bautista Agut joined battle on Court Philippe Chatrier at 12.13pm in rain marginally heavier than that which provoked a long, impassioned rant from the world No1 when he was within two games of losing in straight sets to Murray in Rome two weekends ago.
This time, with the stakes considerably higher – a chance to become the first $100m man in career prize money by reaching the quarters – Djokovic handled adversity with more sangfroid. Nevertheless there were enough anxious moments for him in trying to tame an opponent 16 places below him in the rankings to make this an absorbing duel.
Five hours and 37 minutes after they started on what was notionally day 10 of these championships but which had to incorporate the backlog from day nine, Djokovic still had not subdued Bautista Agut who, at 4-1 down in the unfinished third set, was showing no sign of rolling over on clay that had turned into a soggy sandpit.
The neat and tidy clay-courter from Castellón de la Plana proved every bit as uncooperative in dire conditions as was Aljaz Bedene in the almost unplayable darkness of Saturday night. That is how long a gap Djokovic has had here. It was hard to tell whether he was more frustrated than relieved when the chair umpire, Cédric Mourier, ordered them back in the hutch at 4.54pm.
When they resume at a set apiece Bautista Agut will have the ball in his hand and a thump in his heart because there were many moments in this disjointed match when he was on level terms with the best player in the world.
Mourier ignored Djokovic’s pleas for a cessation on the first-set changeover, when he was a break down, and Bautista Agut served out for 6-3 after 37 minutes. He had taken only one game from the Serb in four previous matches. When they scurried to shelter at 12.50pm, one can be sure the underdog was happier than the favourite.
So, as in Rome against Murray, Djokovic was pitched into a come-from-behind struggle. Yet we are left to wonder why they were asked to play in the rain in the first place. Was it to squeeze in the requisite 59 minutes to avoid a partial refund from a one-day pot of €2m to those patrons optimistic enough to trek to Roland Garros on a second day of lousy weather? When they passed two hours that money was safe.
There was no play at all on Monday, the first time that has happened here since 2000. It was difficult not to sympathise with the schedulers, though – easier to curse the heavens. At 3pm, the covers came off Chatrier, two hours and 10 minutes after they had gone on. This was Djokovic’s Fleetwood Mac moment: “Don’t start thinking about tomorrow... Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.” All his yesterdays undoubtedly had more substance than those of his opponent, but Bautista Agut was going to make the most of these chunks of time. It was his only hope – to catch Djokovic cold. They both should be a little warmer on Wednesday.
