Rain postpones men’s French Open quarters, delays women’s

Rain postponed the men’s quarterfinals involving Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on a stop-and-start day at the French Open on Tuesday.

The women’s quarterfinals were interrupted twice by showers in the afternoon, and the two men’s singles matches on the schedule were moved to Wednesday.

Fourth-seeded Nadal is set to continue his bid for an unprecedented 10th title at Roland Garros against No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta, while defending champion and secondseeded Djokovic will play No. 6 Dominic Thiem.

If Nadal and Djokovic win their quarterfinals, they would face each other in a semifinal showdown.

In the women’s quarterfinals, No. 30 seed Timea Bacsinszky will celebrate her 28th birthday by playing in the semifinals of the French Open after a straight-set victory over home favourite Kristina Mladenovic.

Bacsinszky beat 13th-seeded Mladenovic 6-4, 6-4.

Mladenovic appeared to deal better with the initial delay. She fought off break point to hold at the start of the second set and then immediately broke.

But Bacsinszky broke back. The Swiss player then won 12 of the 15 points before rain started falling again.

Bacsinszky almost dropped her serve but held on and won the match when Mladenovic hit a forehand wide.

Bacsinszky will next face unseeded 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who ousted No. 11 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.