Rain forces shake-up at US Open

The rain that caused a logjam of matches over the last three days at the US Open has forced tournament officials to totally revamp the schedule, adding an unprecedented Friday night session.

Due to steady rain that has soaked the USTA National Tennis Center since Monday, USTA president Arlen Kantarian emerged from a two-and-a-half-hour meeting and announced the sweeping schedule changes for the next few days.

“We are doing our best to finish the tournament on time, but the challenge has got all the more challenging,” Kantarian said.

“We are determined to make the best of a very difficult situation.”

According to Kantarian, tomorrow’s women’s fourth-round matches will resume at the start of the day session and will be followed by the remaining men’s fourth-round matches.

The night session will feature two women’s quarter-finals.

Friday’s afternoon session will consist of the men’s quarter-finals, while the additional evening session will feature the women’s semi-finals.

If rain continues, as is predicted, Kantarian said everything will be pushed back one day, which would mean the men’s final would take place on a Monday for the first time since 1987.

“That’s the initial thinking,” Kantarian said. “We hope to have a tennis bonanza over the next few days.”

There were three men’s fourth-round matches and two women’s quarter-finals postponed today, along with all men’s, women’s and mixed doubles matches. Including juniors, 108 matches were slated.

The two women’s fourth-round matches that started on Monday have not been completed. In fact, just three matches have been completed in the last three days.

There are only two singles matches remaining on today’s schedule.

Fourth-seeded American Andy Roddick meets Belgium’s Xavier Malisse and number eight seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany takes on 12th seed Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, those matches also seem doomed as the forecast is for rain throughout the evening.

They would be added to tomorrow’s schedule if they are called off.

One women’s quarter-final match started today as top seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium and fifth seed Amelie Mauresmo of France took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at 1.45pm EDT (6.45pm Irish time) following a delay of nearly three hours.

Clijsters took a 3-0 lead before a light mist started falling. Tournament referee Brian Earley came on court to halt play after just 10 minutes.

Roddick will put his 15-match winning streak on the line against the unseeded Malisse, who is winless in six career matches against the 21-year-old American.

Schuettler and Schalken faced each other in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, with Schalken winning in straight sets.

The German is trying to get past the fourth round of the US Open for the first time, while Schalken was a semi-finalist here last year.