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French Open: After 16 years, a complete washout

The French Open suffered its first complete washout since 2000 on Monday when all scheduled matches were cancelled due to heavy rain.

The French Open suffered its first complete washout since 2000 on Monday when all scheduled matches were cancelled due to heavy rain.

“Due to weather, there will be no matches played at #RG16 today,” said the Roland Garros Twitter feed.

The last washout 16 years ago also fell on May 30.

There could be more problems on Tuesday with further rain forecast throughout the day before conditions brighten on Wednesday.

The washout left the French tennis federation having to refund around 30,000 ticket holders.

Eight last-16 matches planned for Monday plus two more which had been held over from Sunday will now be played on Tuesday.

Two quarter-finals are also due to take place Tuesday — Andy Murray against Richard Gasquet and defending champion Stan Wawrinka facing Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Play had been set to get underway at 1100 on Monday but was eventually called off just before 1400 local time.

“All cancelled for today — rain, rain go away,” tweeted Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych who was due to face former runner-up David Ferrer of Spain for a last-eight spot.

This year’s Roland Garros was hit by rain delays on the opening Sunday when just 10 of the scheduled 32 ties were completed in a little over four hours of play.

The second day was then hit by another two and a half hour delay. That in turn pushed 12 of the scheduled 66 matches back to the first Tuesday.

There was a two and a half hour stoppage on Saturday followed by another hour on Sunday.

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