Rafa Nadal wonders why French Open officials left him out in the cold

Having finished his quarter-final match at 1:26 am local time in cold, windy conditions, Rafa Nadal questioned French Open organisers’ decision to schedule no fewer than five matches on the same court over the day.

The 12-time Roland Garros champion was scheduled last on the main court and when he started his match the temperature was 13C with a cold wind sweeping the clay off the court, whose roof was left open throughout.

“The weather … it’s too cold to play tennis. I know football players do it all the time but they’re always moving while us tennis players, we stop, we come back, there’s the changeover,” Nadal told a news conference after his 7-6 (4) 6-4 6-1 win against Italian teenager Jannik Sinner.

The play started at 11.00 (SA Time) on Tuesday with a rescheduled women’s fourth-round match before a quarter-final between Nadia Pogoroska and Elina Svitolina, a men’s quarter-final between Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem that lasted five hours and eight minutes and another last-eight encounter between Iga Swiatek and Martina Trevisan.

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