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PARIS – For the first two sets, Rafael Nadal looked like the King of theClay, alternately bullying Novak Djokovic, then frustrating him, asDjokovic tried to solve the nearly unsolvable riddle of Nadal atRoland Garros. The longer a steady drizzle soaked the court, however, the betterDjokovic looked — and in addition to becoming the first manto win four straight major titles in 43 years, it seemed as if hemight be the first to win on a new Grand Slam surface: red mud. Not to be. Officials stepped in and halted play at Sunday's waterlogged FrenchOpen final with Nadal, in search of his record seventh RolandGarros title, clinging to a 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 1-2 lead. If the weathercooperates, the final act will be Monday, with Djokovic serving thesame tennis balls that Nadal was complaining were too saturated inthe minutes before play was halted. One of these men will make history, but regardless, this finalalready has: It will be the first French Open not to end on Sundaysince 1973, when Ilie Nastase wrapped up his title on a Tuesday. Answering most of the questions after play stopped were the RolandGarros tournament director and referee, who stuck by a 3 p.m.starting time — missing out on hours of dry weather earlierin the day — then, in some eyes, let play go on too long, asthe red clay got saturated and slabs of caked clay chunked up onthe court and adhered to the grooves in the players' shoes. Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, said he thought action shouldhave been suspended earlier, "because the court was too wet." Tournament referee Stefan Fransson justified his decision to keepplaying, while tournament director Gilbert Ysern defended thechoice — made with TV considerations very much in mind— to stick with the starting time. "You can't say that everybody knew for sure at what time it wasgoing to rain today," Ysern said. "I did not know, and if anybodyis able to tell (me) for sure at what time it's going to rain thenext day, I'm willing to hire him." This handwringing put a damper on one of the most important andanticipated finals in some time: Nadal trying to pass Bjorn Borg asthe all-time record-holder for French Open titles, and Djokovictrying to become the first player since Rod Laver to win fourstraight Grand Slam tournaments. Until Nadal held serve to pull within 2-1 in the fourth set, he hadlost a mindboggling eight straight games to Djokovic, who hadlooked every bit as helpless at the start of the match, when thecourts were still dry and Nadal was sliding into shots, hitting hisheavy topspin without a problem. Looking helplessly up at his guest box, Djokovic alternated betweenPlan A: Try to stand in and slug it out with Nadal, and Plan B: Gobig and try to end points early. Neither worked and he finallyfound Plan C: Play better. But before that, the frustration spilled over. He spiked one racketto the ground — a move that brought boos and whistles. Then,after losing serve to fall behind 4-3 in the second set, he bashedanother stick into his bench, putting a big hole in the bottom andsending a ballkid out to the middle of the court to pick up thedebris. Shortly after that, a rain delay of about 35 minutes ensued.Tournament officials replaced the bench. Djokovic came out withclean socks and what seemed like a new attitude. After droppingthree quick games, he ran off eight straight, including the firstset he's ever won off Nadal at Roland Garros and the first Nadalhas dropped during the 2012 tournament. After play was halted for the second time, Nadal "focused,"according to Uncle Toni — not getting wrapped up in theSpain-Italy soccer match that was playing on TVs around thegrounds. After the Nadals left the grounds for the day, Djokovic followed,pausing to chat with Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol in theplayers' lounge. If the weather cooperates — the forecast is for intermittentrain — and they finish Monday, it won't be the first time: Ithappened at the last two U.S. Opens, where the final has beenpostponed every year since 2008. And, of course, it happenedearlier this year at the Australian Open, where they played 5hours, 53 minutes and wrapped it up at 1:37 a.m. Monday inMelbourne. I am an expert from stainless-steelsheets.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Stainless Steel Round Bars Manufacturer , Cold Rolled Steel Coils, Stainless Steel Sheets,and more.
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