Rain postpones French Open quarter-final matches

Heavy rain in Paris forced the postponement of the last quarter-final singles matches at the French Open on Wednesday.

Those four remaining matches — two for the men, two for the women — will be played Thursday.

No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face German Alexander Zverev, the fifth seed, while No. 4 Dominic Thiem gets No. 10 Karen Khachanov of Russia.

On the women’s side, 14th seed Madison Keys plays eighth-seeded Ashleigh Barty of Australia, while unseeded Amanda Anisimova tangles with No. 3 Simona Halep of Romania. The wet conditions are likely to benefit Halep, said threetime champion Mats Wilander.

“There is a lot of pressure on Simona Halep in this one,” Wilander said. “Amanda Anisimova is an excellent ball-striker. However, I feel the heavy conditions will make it tough for her to hit through the ball to Halep because she defends so well.”

Meanwhile, Roger Federer will need to try something different to beat Rafael Nadal when the duo meet for the first time at Roland Garros in eight years on Friday.

Each time Federer was unable to contain the marauding Mallorcan, whose left-handed topspin game tormented the Swiss great like no other player has ever managed. Wilander believes Fed fans have reason to be optimistic.

“Roger has clearly decided he doesn’t want to play Nadal the way he used to play him, which means ‘I’m going to miss before you get a chance to get a rhythm,’” he said.

“Roger (is) so dominant he never had to play in a way to make the other guys worse, now he’s figured out how to make Nadal’s game worse.”

The Swede says Federer will gamble early in rallies. If he wins the point, great, if he loses it Nadal would have been deprived the kind of baseline pattern he thrives on.