Djokovic has "issues" with umpire' s elegant shoes

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic could not understand why chair umpires wearing slippery shoes make the decisions on whether matches should go on in rain at Roland Garros.

"For me, it's one way funny and unacceptable as well at the same time to have a chair umpire come in in elegant shoes and try to slide and check whether or not the lines are slippery. It's gonna be slippery anyway in those shoes," said the world No. 1 on Wednesday.

"I think it's important at least what they can do is to wear tennis shoes and check the conditions. All these small details can actually help a lot in the judgment of the actual court," added Djokovic, who wrapped up a "long" victory over Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut for a quarterfinal spot.

The 29-year-old Serb, who needs an ever first French Open trophy to complete a career slam, fought back from one set down to beat 14th-seeded Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 in a match that was initially scheduled on Monday but delayed and interrupted twice by rain on Tuesday.

Play resumed on Wednesday from Djokovic leading 4-1 in the third set, and the top seed finished with a forehand volley on his second match point to set up a meeting with Tomas Berdych after the No. 7 seed ousted Spain's David Ferrer in straight sets.

Two high-seeded women' s singles players suffered from the rain-ravaged clay-court major on Tuesday as No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and the 6th-seeded Simona Halep were ousted in the only two completed matches on day 10 competitions.

"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 in poor conditions with slippery courts caused by rain and heavy balls with clay sticking on.

"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.

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.

Djokovic' s opponent Bautista also told reporters after Wednesday' s exit that he understood the organizers' position though "they pushed us to play two hours yesterday" .

"Of course the court at the end was not in the good shape to play. Also (it) was a bit difficult to play with these heavy balls. Today I had a bit pain on the elbow because of the balls," said the Spaniard. "But you have to play everywhere, and today was better than yesterday."

Asked whether players should have more say in decisions over rain-delayed matches, Djokovic said it' s a delicate subject depending on various things and conditions like facing it as a player or an tournament organizer.

"But priority should always be the health of the players, no doubt," he said.

"I have had situations before, plenty of situations before, where I thought that the courts were not good enough for us to perform at such a high level because it was quite dangerous on the edge to twist your ankle or, God forbid, something else.

"So I understand the frustrations that some players are going through. I go through the same. But sometimes you just have to deal with it and accept whatever the common decision is from everybody around.

"Of course sometimes the tournament referees and the grounds people are trying to do their best to evaluate the condition of the court. Sometimes it does appear that maybe they don't because they don't play, they don't maybe to full extent understand what you go through with your movement and why is it so dangerous," he added.

With rain creating a compressed schedule, Djokovic will be on court for a third day in a row on Thursday. Endit