Roland Garros quarterfinal matches between Spanish Rafael Nadal and Argentine Diego Schwartzman, and between Croatian Marin Cilic and Argentine Juan Martin del Potro were suspended due to rain on Wednesday and will resume tomorrow, Thursday.
The defending champion's match on the central Philippe Chatrier court was suspended after two hours of play, when Nadal lost the first set 6-4 and was leading 5-3 in the second set.
In the other match, played on Suzanne Lenglen court, Cilic and Del Potro were tied at six games with a five-all tiebreaker after an hour and eleven minutes.
MATCH UPDATE
1 SET: Schwartzman won the first set 6-4!
2 SET: Nadal leads 5-3
PREVIEW
Spain is aiming for a double that it achieved only in 1994 and 1998, which requires Rafael Nadal and Garbine Muguruza to win on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros against the determined Argentine Diego Schwartzman and the formidable Maria Sharapova, respectively.
To replicate the doubles of 1994 (Sergi Bruguera and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario) and 1998 (Carlos Moya and Sanchez Vicario herself), Nadal, the defending champion, will face a rival whose small stature (1.70 meters) does not reflect the difficulties he presents on the court.
The ten-time champion of the Musketeers' Cup stated that he expects "a very tough match" against "El Peque", the twelfth in the world, who compensates for his short stature with extra combativeness and perseverance.
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The second-best Argentine racket, winner of the Rio de Janeiro tournament this year, has proven to be a specialist on clay courts, and at this Roland Garros, he has achieved his best performance yet, reaching the quarterfinals. He also recently defeated South African giant Kevin Anderson (seventh) with an epic comeback.
The head-to-head record between them favors the winner of 16 Grand Slams, as in the five times they have faced each other, the victory has gone to the Spanish side, the last two being this year in Madrid (6-3, 6-4) and in the Australian Open, where the Argentine managed to win a set, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, and 6-3.
Both Nadal, 32, and Schwartzman, 25, also have a personal connection. The Buenos Aires player has trained at Nadal's tennis academy in Mallorca for the past two years.
"He prepared for Roland Garros at the academy, but I will never invite him again because every time he comes, he leaves quickly," Nadal joked with journalists.