By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday July 7, 2019
Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem will finish their Roland Garros semi-final on Saturday morning after splitting two sets and only partially completing a third, but nobody is exactly sure how the decision to call all play around the grounds on Friday was reached by tournament organizers.
The tournament called all play for the day at Roland Garros just as the skies were turning blue. Roland Garros posted the following statement, with a photo of a crowd full of open umbrellas on Court Philippe Chatrier.
It didn’t seem like a strange decision at the time—tournaments frequently call off play when they have information of an impending storm. But a statement (later proved incorrect) by Eurosport’s Barbara Schett-Eagle, in which the television reporter said she had heard that Novak Djokovic left the site before the decision to suspend play was taken by tournament organizers, was captured and posted on Twitter.
The video led to speculation that the tournament might have had its decision unfairly influenced by Djokovic .
As users posted updates of sunny skies in Paris, speculation continued.
New York Times Reporter Christopher Clarey would later obtain a statement from Roland Garros Tournament Director Guy Forget, who called the speculation about Djokovic leaving the grounds before the match was called “nonsense.”
Schett-Eagle, who is Austrian like Djokovic’s opponent Thiem, later took to Twitter to apologize for her statement. She said wrong information was passed to her during the show, and went to say she plans to apologize tomorrow.
Which leaves us where we are now. Wondering why a Grand Slam semi-final was called when most of media on site in Paris believe it realistically could have been finished. Gusts of wind had actually wreaked havoc on the quality of play all day in Paris, frustrating spectators and players, but matches aren't ever called for wind.
Perhaps they should be? Another discussion for another time.
Djokovic and Thiem are set to continue their battle on Saturday at 1200 Paris time. They have split the first two sets and Thiem leads 3-1 in the third.
The match will take place before the women’s final—see the full Saturday schedule below: