Andy Murray vs Richard Gasquet delayed until Wednesday with fears French Open could overrun

Poor weather conditions continue to affect the tournament

Andy Murray assesses the conditions at the French Open (Getty)

After another frustrating day watching the rain fall here at the French Open, Andy Murray was told he would have to return on Wednesday to play his quarter-final against Richard Gasquet.

The eagerly awaited showdown between the Scot and the Frenchman had been scheduled as the third match on Court Philippe Chatrier. However, after a delayed start and then a break for rain of nearly three hours, the day’s opening fourth-round match between Novak Djokovic and Roberto Bautista Agut was still only in the third set, with the players off court again after another deterioration in the weather, when Murray and Gasquet were told shortly after 5pm that there would be no attempt to start their match on Tuesday. The quarter-final between Stan Wawrinka and Albert Ramos-Vinolas was also postponed until Wednesday.

With more bad weather forecast for the rest of the week, the main concern of tournament organisers was to complete the fourth-round singles matches. The two outstanding fourth-round matches in the women’s singles were both played to a finish, but the four remaining men’s matches were all on court when play was halted for the second time in the day just before 5pm.

Novak Djokovic shields himself from the rain at the French Open (Getty)

With each passing day the possibility of the tournament not finishing as scheduled on Sunday increases. Guy Forget, the tournament director, said after Tuesday’s wash-out that he did not think it would be fair to ask any players to play best-of-five-set matches on more than two days in a row.