Matches to start at 10am on Friday as French Open races to catch up after rain delays

After just 43 minutes of play were possible on the outside courts (and a less than encouraging Thursday in terms of weather forecast), Amélie Mauresmo, tournament director, has made the necessary arrangements. On Friday, matches will start at 10am instead of 11am on all the courts, including Phillipe-Chatrier. The aim is to make up for the delay caused by the bad weather.

A fourth match has been added to the day’s session on Centre Court, where matches usually start at noon.

“We can’t be fair to everyone, but we do what we can, while also keeping to a certain limit in terms of timetables,” Mauresmo said. “We try to take everything into account. We try to do the best we can so that the players can go home,” explained Amélie Mauresmo at a hastily-announced press conference on the issue of scheduling ethics.

“Yesterday (Wednesday), we made a decision (to cancel all matches on the annex courts) at 5pm so that the players could go home. We were unlikely to have a real window of opportunity to get everyone back on the court.”