The dream of one more match between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic was left hanging by a thread on Monday with Murray on the brink of elimination from the Geneva Open.
Wild-card Murray was 7-5, 4-1 down to Yannick Hanfmann when a thunderstorm lashed the Parc des Eaux-Vives grounds and the match was called off for the night.
Since Friday’s draw, tennis fans had been relishing what could be the final match between members of the Big Four who have dominated men’s tennis this century: Djokovic, Murray, Rafael Nadal and the now-retired Roger Federer.
Photo: AFP
Murray, 37 and playing with a metal hip, has said he is unlikely to carry on playing competitive tennis beyond the next few months, while Nadal, also plagued by injuries, is likewise facing the end of his career and is unsure if he would make a farewell appearance at Roland Garros next week.
Now the world No. 75, Murray was facing the German world No. 85 in the Geneva first round — with world No. 1 Djokovic awaiting the winner in the second.
The 28-man clay-court tournament serves as a final tune-up before next week’s Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the year.
Photo courtesy of Chan Hao-ching
Former world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam winner Murray was playing his first tour-level match since damaging tendons in his left ankle in Miami in March.
His match with Hanfmann was to resume yesterday with the winner to face Djokovic today.
Djokovic took a wild card to play in Geneva in a bid to rescue an alarming dip in form ahead of his French Open title defense next week.
The record 24-time Grand Slam champion would arrive in Paris without a title in the season for the first time since 2018, unless he takes the Geneva trophy.
Meanwhile, at the Internationaux de Strasbourg Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Wu Fang-hsien beat France’s Chloe Paquet and Diane Parry to advance to the women’s doubles quarter-finals.
In other tennis news, the WTA announced “a multiyear partnership” with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), emulating a deal made by the men’s tour in February.
The WTA said in a statement that it shared with PIF an “ambition to grow women’s professional tennis and inspire more women and girls around the world to take up the game.”
Much like its forays into golf and soccer, the Saudi Arabian tennis push has met some resistance, with legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert denouncing Riyadh’s record on women’s rights in an op-ed published in January by the Washington Post.
The article was headlined: “We did not help build women’s tennis for it to be exploited by Saudi Arabia.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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