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Roundup: Radwanska, Halep complain after losing in poor conditions at Roland Garros

Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Persistent rain again damaged the French Open on Tuesday as two high-seeded women's singles players were ousted in the only two completed matches on day 10 of the clay-court major.

World No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska and sixth-seeded Simona Halep both suffered fourth-round defeats in poor conditions with slippery courts caused by rain and heavy balls with clay sticking on.

"It's not a tournament. It's a Grand Slam!" complained Radwanska after losing 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 to the 102nd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.

"How can you allow players to play in the rain? I don't think they really care what we think. I think they care about other things," said the Polish star.

Radwanska's match started Sunday before rain suspended the play, but then all matches were canceled due to the bad weather on Monday before the Pole and her opponent finally completed it in Tuesday's rain.

Halep went even worse as the Romanian lost in straight sets to No. 21 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 (0), 6-3.

"It was impossible to play, in my opinion, No one cares about the players, in my opinion. I don't care that I lost the match today, but I was close to injured with my back," said Halep after the exit.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and four other high seeds started their respective fourth-round match at noon before play was halted later with the conditions continuing to worsen.

The Serb was leading 3-6, 6-4, 4-1 against 14th-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut who was forced to stop in the evening after the match was already delayed for two hours in rain.

In the other play halted, No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych was trailing 2-1 to the 11th seed David Ferrer, the 12th seed David Goffin was down 0-3 by Czech Ernests Gulbis and the 13th-seeded Dominic Thiem was to finish 2-6, 7-6 (2) against another Spaniard Marcel Granollers.

Quarterfinal matches involving second-seeded Andy Murray of Scotland and ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France, as well as defending champion and third-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland and Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain were canceled and moved to Wednesday.

On Monday, rain washed out an entire day at Roland Garros for the first time in 16 years. Endit