Flushing Meadows, NY – For the second time in two days, rain prevented the men from completing any matches at the 2011 U.S. Open.
Three men's fourth-round matches were staged for about 15 minutes on Wednesday before wet weather forced tournament officials to call off play for a second straight day. Players never even took to the courts here on Tuesday, and Wednesday's schedule was supposed to feature two quarterfinal matches and four fourth-round affairs.
Second-seeded and defending U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal was trailing Luxembourg's Gilles Muller 0-3 in the first set, while unseeded American Donald Young was ahead of fourth-seeded 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray 2-1, and 21st-seeded former champion Andy Roddick was leading fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 3-1 when players were forced to leave the court, following a lengthy rain delay that started the day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
A fourth-rounder between 12th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon and 28th-seeded 6-foot-9 American John Isner never started on Day 10.
The quarterfinal bouts that were spoiled on Wednesday were to pit world No. 1 Novak Djokovic against 20th-seeded fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic and third- seeded five-time U.S. Open champ Roger Federer versus 11th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Djokovic is an amazing 61-2 this year, including Wimbledon and Australian Open titles, while the 16-time major titlist Federer was this year's French Open runner-up to his fellow former No. 1 Nadal, who bested Djokovic in last year's finale in Flushing.
Rain is also in the forecast for Thursday.
