Nadal blasts French Open schedule

Angry Rafael Nadal blasted French Open scheduling as a ‘joke’ on Friday and claimed he was being treated unfairly. The seven-time champion had his second round tie against Slovakia’s Martin Kliznan, which was the third match on the Court Suzanne Lenglen schedule on Thursday, cancelled as rain swamped Roland Garros. 

He then played first up on Friday, completing a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win in almost three hours. But he now faces having to play again on Saturday despite opponent Italian Fabio Fognini having finished his second round match on Thursday afternoon. ‘The schedule was wrong, it was a bad decision,’ said Nadal. Today I was playing three hours while my opponent was in the locker room watching TV.’