‘Fuera Fuera’ Mayhem in Barcelona Open as fans furious over last-minute schedule change of Stefanos Tsitsipas-Ilya Ivashka match
Follow Us
Stefanos Tsitsipas
The clay-court season started in Spain earlier this week with the Barcelona open. But the ATP 500 tournament hasn’t got going to its full flow due to the unprecedented weather conditions. It has been raining in Barcelona for the last couple of days and hence most of the matches had to be rescheduled. The courts in Barcelona don’t have a roof due to which play had been called off for the last two days.
It had been raining even today, but to everyone’s delight, the play was resumed after a short interruption but the conditions at Pista Rafa Nadal, the center court, weren’t ideal, and hence play was called off at the specific court due to which all matches had to be rescheduled to smaller courts. The main center of attraction on Pista Rafa Nadal was top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas playing his first-round match against Belraussina Ilya Ivashka.
Tsitsipas was supposed to play his first-round match on Wednesday which was then pushed to Thursday after rain gods interrupted play in the first set when the Greek was leading 5-1. But on Thursday, due to adverse circumstances, the play was shifted to Pista Jan Kodes. But due to the lack of seating arrangements, a lot of fans were unhappy with the decision.
Tournament director David Ferrer holds a press conference to clarify the situation
Due to the mayhem, tournament director David Ferrer had to hold a press conference in which he clarified several things. He revealed that Central(center court) is not in good condition and that’s why the match was played in Jan Kodes. He also pointed out that if Tsitsipas wouldn’t have completed his match on Thursday, he wouldn’t have been forced to play three matches on Friday. He also said that the tournament will reimburse all the funds to fans who couldn’t watch the Tsitsipas-Ivashka match.
Meanwhile on the court, courtesy of a late finish, Tsitsipas defeated Ivashka in three sets 6-1,4-6,6-2 to book a Round of 16 spot where he’ll face Grigor Dimitrov.
Also read: “Roger in his prime but…” Eugenie Bouchard settles the GOAT debate between the Big-3
Stay Updated!
Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)