There have been several delays to play at the 2016 French Open, but Monday saw the most significant one yet. Before play ever got underway on the clay at Roland Garros, tournament organizers announced that an entire day of matches was cancelled due to the weather. This was the first time that play has been entirely wiped out due to the weather at the French Open in exactly 16 years.
French Open 2016 results: Rain wipes out all of Monday’s matches
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, along with everyone else set to play Monday, had their matches cancelled due to rain.
Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
Matches have been cancelled a couple times this year, but it was typically just a handful of matches. But no players will see the court on Monday, a rarity in Grand Slam events in particular due to the fact that the other events tend to have courts with roofs. Wimbledon and the Australian Open have covered courts and the U.S. Open will do the same for the first time this year.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear when the French Open will get a roof installed on some courts. Originally a date of 2018 had been floated, but tournament director Guy Forget said last week that 2020 was the earliest a roof could be installed.
Monday was to feature Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, the top seeds in the tournament in fourth-round action. It also would have had Venus Williams playing just before her sister, and a few other top seeds were also set to be in action. Now all of the players originally set to play on Monday will play on Tuesday if the weather holds up. Forecasts suggest that more rain is on the way so even that is not a given.
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