The rain insists on Barcelona and the Godó is paralyzed, so most of the fans who were ready to enjoy tennis this Thursday and, especially, another portion of Carlos Alcaraz, had to retrace the path they had taken in the morning and parade through the streets of Pedralbes, to return in the afternoon. Lots of water all day, and very little tennis. From turn to turn the programming, the day was reduced to the minimum expression and the duel between the Murcian and Jaume Munar, set in the third shift of the central, will finally be played this Friday.
This means that if the weather behaves and manages to advance, Alcaraz, 18 years old, would play two games on the same day. Something that does not quite fit with Boris Becker’s hypothesis. “I hope he doesn’t play in Barcelona, Madrid or Rome, because the matches on clay are very long and leave you exhausted. For my taste it would be too much. You should take a break, ”explained the German a few days ago, who perhaps did not count in the equation with the early elimination in Monte Carlo.
In other words, Alcaraz has played two matches on clay this year, the one he lost to Sebastian Korda in the Principality and the zigzagging first duel in Barcelona against Sonwoo Kwon. The South Korean gave him a scare by snatching the second set from him, but he eventually came out on top.
“It’s going to be very complicated”, he referred to this Friday’s pulse with Munar, with whom he has crossed twice, both on sand: the first time the Majorcan won (last year in Marbella) and the second ( Rio de Janeiro, this year) he prevailed. The winner in the round of 16 will face the challenge of chaining another game next, in a circumstance that would not be new for Alcaraz; this same season, in Rio, he already beat Matteo Berrettini and Fabio Fognini with only a few hours difference.
So, the schedule of the Brazilian tournament was also affected by the rain. “Something that cannot be controlled”, said this Thursday the director of the Godó, David Ferrer. “We knew that the weather forecast was very bad and it has been really difficult. We try to do it in the best way possible…”, added the man from Alicante, while at the end of the day a ruckus was formed on the Jan Kodes track, the second most important in the Barcelona complex.
Transfer and funnels
It had been possible to finish the Dimitrov-Coria previously, suspended the day before due to the rain, and at that moment the Tsitsipas-Ivashka was going to be completed due to the organization’s desire that the eighth and fourth rounds be disputed, and thus not there is no pending pulse that could harm a player; It happens that the drainage of the central court, with a capacity for 8,000 people, did not finish absorbing the water as expected and the match had to be transferred to the Jan Kodes, for 3,000; funnels were formed at the entrances and, logically, many fans were left out, unable to watch the game.
The protests from outside were heard inside when the action between the Greek and the Belarusian had already begun, so the referee stopped the game for a few minutes. “I understand the discomfort because the situation is difficult, but we cannot do much more. We had to take advantage of this small window without rain to be able to play, and also thinking about the rest of the players”, reasoned Ferrer, who is confident that the tournament can be completed on Sunday.
The regulations establish that if 60 minutes are played, there is no obligation to return the price of the tickets; however, the Godó organization announced that it will return the full amount to the attendees. The weather forecast for this Friday is favorable and it is expected that the day can pass without arrests.
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