The rain is pouring down on the soaked earth of the RCTB and the public comes and goes through the corridors of the venue, disappointed, and the tennis players sit on the terrace of the clubhouse, scan the horizon and analyze the weather forecast on their mobile phones. Around eight in the afternoon, the organization of the tournament announces that it will return the amount of the tickets to all the spectators who request it. The regulations say that if 60 minutes are played, there is no obligation to return the price of the tickets, but the organization of the tournament has decided that the money will be returned regardless of what is played.
Before, at noon, Stéfanos Tsitsipas eats his lunch and looks at everything with a disgruntled gesture, languid and elongated as he is, as if wondering:
When will this nightmare stop?
For tennis, stormy days are a tongue twister. You can’t play, you don’t know if you can play, you don’t know when to warm up, you don’t know how to get on.
In the press room, the journalists put their hands in their pockets, watch how the order of play is deteriorating and find out, already in the middle of the afternoon, that the day will be reduced to half a dozen games.
Do you remember something like that?
-It is the first time in my life that I am going home without having commented on a single blow -says Nacho Calvo, TVE commentator, at half past six in the afternoon.
(On the Jan Kodes court, Grigor Dimitrov spends a quarter of an hour finishing off his match against Federico Coria, in a match suspended the day before: 4-6, 6-3, 6-4).
Soon after, he walks out that door and see you tomorrow.
-Once, the Godó ended on Monday -remembers another.
And he is right: he refers to 1997. On that occasion, Albert Costa ended up defeating Albert Portas on a Monday.
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But that’s not going to happen, is it? the rest responds.
And everyone lowers their heads and crosses their fingers, because now it’s time to do the math and cross themselves. Everything that is not played today will be moved to Friday. And that will end up making a range of players have to face two commitments in a single day.
Carlos Alcaraz, on Wednesday, during his match against Soonwoo Kwon
Among the victims is Carlos Alcaraz (18), the new tennis sensation, the man who has climbed more than 100 positions in a single year and now, still a teenagerround the Top 10 (it is the eleventh racket on the circuit).
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If the sky opens, Alcaraz would face Munar this Friday, in a first turn (both are 1-1 in their heads-up). And the winner of that crossing would face the winner of the Tsitsipas-Dimitrov.
The gibberish is noticeable.
“Calm down, calm down, we still don’t have a time crisis,” sources from the organization say.
At 7:30 p.m., overwhelmed, David Ferrer appears before the press. He is the tournament director. And he says:
-The idea is that Tsitsipas and Ivaschka finish this Thursday. Because if you don’t, things will get very complicated. We will never allow any player to play three games in one day, and for that reason, the tournament could be extended until Monday.
Shortly before eight in the evening, Tsitsipás and Ivaschka appear on the Jan Kodes court, the RCTB’s second court. They play there, not in the Central (Rafa Nadal), because that one drains better.
The spectators contemplate the triumph of the Greek, already at night, but those who request it will see the amount of their tickets returned.
