Heavy downpour at French Open revives impulse for new stadium

French Open boss Guy Forget made a passionate appeal on Monday for construction work on the Roland Garros stadium to be speeded up. A roof is scheduled for Centre Court in 2020. But that date could be delayed by wrangles over the redevelopment of the site on the leafy western fringes of Paris.

Spectators use umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain. Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

Forget, 51, who became tournament director in February after the departure of Gilbert Ysern, voiced his frustration hours after cancelling the entire schedule for day nine due to incessant rain.

Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic and the women’s top seed Serena Williams were among 48 senior players and 130 juniors who were told they could return home just before 1pm.

Suspended matches from Sunday evening pitting the women’s second seed Agnieszka Radwanska against Tsvetana Pironkova and the 2014 finalist Simona Halep against Samantha Stosur, the runner-up in 2010, will be the first matches played on Tuesday on Court Suzanne Lenglen and Court 1.

"Our concern is to give a good impression of our sport," said Forget, a former world number four. "Cancelling the entire day’s play is not a good sign. We’ve talked about the roof in Paris for 15 years. I’ve joked about it in the past that things are slow in France but a day like today just shows that we have to stop hesitating."

Forget added: "I can name a lot of projects in our country – the Pyramid at the Louvre is one - where people have said: ‘Oh we shouldn’t be doing this. It’s going to be ugly. It’s going to take too long.’ But eventually, it happens and everybody thinks it’s great."

While the French Open matches the other grand slam tournaments in terms of prize money – the men’s and women’s singles champions will this year receive 2 million euros – it lags behind Australia and Wimbledon where there are already roofs over the main show courts.

Arthur Ashe stadium at the US Open in New York will have a retractable roof for this year’s event in August. "The people who are making the calls need to realise how big the tournament is. They need to realise what it should be and what it could mean to the young people in our country," said Forget.

Mary Pierce was the last French woman to win the singles title. Her victory over the Spaniard Conchita Martinez came in 2000. No Frenchwomen are left in the 2016 tournament. The hopes of a nation rest with the men’s ninth seed Richard Gasquet. His quest to become the first Frenchman to win the title since Yannick Noah in 1983 has reached the quarter-final stage but he encounters a formidable obstacle in the shape of second seed Andy Murray.

The 29-year-old Briton has claimed seven of their 10 meetings since 2006. Murray has won both of their matches on clay which came at the French Open. Their third meeting on the surface should, weather permitting, take place on Centre Court.

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