The rain gods have thrown the U.S. Open into chaos again. The four men’s fourth-round matches were postponed by rain yesterday afternoon for the second straight day. The drenched U.S. Open needs dry weather today to avoid a damning streak of a fourth straight men’s final on Monday. The Open extending to Tuesday also is not out of the question.
Rain is in the forecast today, threatening an overstuffed but epic card spawned by two days alternating between downpours and mistiness. Not one match has been completed and 20 minutes of tennis have been played during the two days.
After canceling the men’s day matches, the USTA tried to play all four women’s quarterfinals last night but misty conditions chased Serena Williams off the court during warmups at 8 p.m.
The Wimbledon-like weather these past four years still has not revived USTA’s talks of erecting a retractable roof over Ashe Stadium.
Nevertheless, according to a source, there have been preliminary discussions about a bigger project with New York City, bulldozing the smaller Armstrong and Grandstand stadiums to build a massive new roofed arena.
The USTA has planned an elaborate 9/11 ceremony for the men’s final. A tournament official said it will go on as planned Sunday no matter what round it is.
“I’d love to have a roof,” tournament director Jim Curley said. “[But] a roof on Arthur Ashe is technologically a challenge and financially cost-prohibitive at $200 million. Do I think it’s going to happen? I think it’s a real challenge for a roof to be put on Ashe.”
If the four fourth-round matches are not completed today, a 9/11 men’s final is officially off. If they finish those matches today, the winners still would have to play four straight days to finish on time.
“It’s not ideal for sure,” Curley said. “But it’s fair for all the players, and we’re taking the fairness issue seriously.”
Starting at 11 a.m., Andy Roddick will resume his match against David Ferrer on Armstrong, up 3-1. Rafael Nadal, who blasted the USTA for having them play in treacherous conditions, will try to battle back from a 3-0 first-set hole against Gilles Muller at Ashe Stadium. Donald Young, up 2-1 on Andy Murray, goes back to the Grandstand, and John Isner faces Gilles Simon on the new Court 17. The matches were supposed to be played Tuesday.
“We’ll be calling them back [today] dejà vu at 11 a.m, we’ll put them across all four courts,” Curley said. “If we’re fortunate enough to get all the play in we have scheduled for [today], then we’ll be on course. If most or all of [today] gets rained out, we’re in likelihood looking at Monday.”
Curley would not disclose the financial hit of a men’s Monday final but said it would hurt.
“From a tennis perspective it’s not ideal,” Curley said. “It’s fair to say the audience we’d capture on Sunday afternoon is larger.”
Four men already are in the quarterfinals — Roger Federer will face Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Novak Djokovic takes on Janko Tipsarevic. Their matches also were wiped out and rescheduled for today, as were the women’s four quarters.
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As first reported in The Post, the Garden’s winter card March 5 will feature Caroline Wozniacki vs. Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick vs. Roger Federer, Madison Square Garden announced.
