Rain postpones semifinals after 21 minutes of play

The rain did not give enough rest to let Carlos Alcaraz and Pablo Carreño compete in the semifinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Trofeo Conde de Godó. After the first game was scheduled for 1:30 p.m., just as a hail storm appeared and damaged the courts, there were up to three attempts to resume the day. First at 2:30 p.m., then at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., but finally it was not until 7:25 p.m. that the two games started on center court and 1simultaneously and altering the program.

The organization of Godó wanted to resolve the semifinal at all costs during the day today to play the final this Sunday not before relegation at 4:00 p.m., when the broadcast of the match was set by the televisions. But finally, and when Alcaraz and the Australian De Miñaur tied (2-2) and Pablo Carreño equaled Diego Schwartzman’s break (2-2), the rain reappeared with insistence and caused the matches to be suspended. Spectators and players were more aware of the track and the sky than the game.

“The track players have had to fix the track up to five times. It has been a superhuman effort. The first reason for the cancellation was the safety of the players. We couldn’t continue like this. It didn’t seem right to keep people there all day either. with this uncertaintycommented from the organization of the club in a press conference after the suspension.

The players paraded; the spectators, who during the day had had to take shelter from the rain in the intestines of the Real Club Tenis de Barcelona, ​​also began to leave the facility after waiting for seven hours and seeing how the match could not finally be finished. The organization will return the money for the tickets as it did on Thursday (“it creates a complicated situation for us, but the important thing is that a tennis party be held”), when just a few minutes of the meeting between Dimitrov and Stéfanos Tsitsipas were played . Both passed the round and on Friday the shift had to be doubled. “The players couldn’t play three games in one day,” Ferrer said.

The semifinals will be played simultaneously this Sunday at 11:00. On Center Court, Alcaraz, who quickly left the club, will face De Miñaur, while Carreño wants to continue his sensational tournament on Court 1 against Schwartzman. Then a final before 16:00: “They will have a minimum of two hours of rest so that it is the most fair”, said David Ferrer, director of the tournament. The lucky ones, the spectators who bought a ticket for the final. They will be able to watch the semifinals and the last round in one go. As long as the rain, that surprise guest, does not make an appearance again, something that, this Sunday, is not expected.