PARIS – Roland Garros suffered another scheduling blow on Friday when the second semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem was halted for the night.
Organisers said the decision was taken due to the worsening weather conditions, but just after play was suspended for the day at 6.45pm, bright skies appeared over the site.
In theory, that could have allowed for another two hours of play.
Austrian fourth seed Thiem led 6-2 3-6 3-1 against the world number one when the players left Court Philippe Chatrier.
The semi-final will resume at 12pm on Saturday, organisers said.
The winner will play Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final, after the 11-time champion beat old rival Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 earlier on Friday.
Top seed Djokovic had been increasingly frustrated with the conditions on court, with high winds kicking up the clay.
He even summoned the tour supervisor at one stage to complain about the severity of the conditions.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/RG19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RG19 pic.twitter.com/lfieOjOlaB
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros)
“It hasn’t rained for 50 minutes and already play has been cancelled,” tweeted Amelie Mauresmo, France’s former world number one.
She had already blasted the decision to switch the two women’s semi-finals away from Chatrier as a “disgrace”.
“I believe that we have hit rock bottom, but the good thing is that the only way now is up.”
Tournament organisers said that fans holding tickets for semi-final will be fully refunded as they will not be valid for Saturday.
Djokovic has experienced similar delays before and bounced back during his ongoing 26-match Grand Slam winning streak.
He played the last two sets of his Wimbledon semi-final last year against Nadal, and returned the next day to beat South African Kevin Anderson in the final.