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Johanna Konta's French Open semi-final against Marketa Vondrousova has been postponed until Friday because of rain at Roland Garros.
No singles action was possible on Wednesday, meaning the quarter-finals that had been scheduled have now been delayed until Thursday.
To be fair to the women's players in the top half of the draw, which includes defending champion Simona Halep, both semi-finals will now be played on Friday with the final on Saturday.
Let's try this again tomorrow....#RG19 pic.twitter.com/LTKNCIC82v — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2019
The finalist from the top half will have to play three days in a row while the winners of the men's quarter-finals between top seed Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem and Karen Khachanov will also have to play again on Friday.
Organisers had pushed back the intended start time on Wednesday from 2pm every half an hour until 4.30pm when they decided the forecast made any further attempts at getting under way futile.
Another headache for tournament organisers is that, although the forecast for Thursday is good, more rain is expected on Friday.
Tournament director Guy Forget revealed one women's semi-final could even be played on the third court, the new Simonne Mathieu garden arena, with completing the matches the main priority.
All matches cancelled for today, 5 June 2019, at Roland-Garros: tickets fully refunded. More info ➡️ https://t.co/NunoS7oiAx #RG19 pic.twitter.com/WYWgl8nYe6 — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2019
The fact that tickets for the men's semi-finals have been sold as two separate sessions is a further complication in terms of rearranging the schedule.
Forget said: "The schedule of the bad weather on Friday we know is a possibility. I just left the room to see the different options that we have. None of them are ideal because we have the ladies' and the men's to be played.
"We could technically play on two courts, on three courts, but at one point it's a call we're going to have to make.
"We have, of course, the match with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, which is the one that a lot of people are waiting for. But then, after that, we have two big finals, the women's and the men's, and we want to make the best we can so they can be played on time."
Such problems should be a thing of the past next year when there will be a roof on Court Philippe Chatrier.
