MIKE DICKSON AT ROLAND GARROS: A staccato day of rain delays ended with Bacsinszky and Ostapenko lined up against each other on their 28th and 20th birthdays respectively.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were already into an unscheduled early supper on Tuesday night by the time the women had thrown up two predictably random French Open semi-finalists.
A staccato day of rain delays ended with world No 30 Timea Bacsinszky and unseeded Jelena Ostapenko lined up against each other for a place in the final.
By strange coincidence their match on Thursday will take place on their 28th and 20th birthdays respectively.
Djokovic and Nadal were sent home due to the downpours, and find themselves on the early shift of a bumper second Wednesday, with their delayed quarter finals starting ahead of Andy Murray.
The men’s event was always going to have a more familiar look than that of their female counterparts in the latter stages, and so it has proved.
It was nearly 8pm by the time Caroline Wozniacki fled from the court, having been finished off in a fourth separate session by world No 47 Ostapenko.
The two of them came out with the vastly more experienced Dane leading 2-1 in the decider. You would never have known it as she lost the last five games to exit 4-6 6-2 6-2.
The precocious Ostapenko has plenty of attitude and crunched 38 winners to the six of Wozniacki, who played her usual defensive game.
It was a heartbreaker for the older player, who has been world number one and held out hope that this could have been the chance to break her Grand Slam duck in this wide open field..
Bacsinszky also had to contend with three breaks for rain to win a match that spanned nearly six hours, 6-4 against local hope Kristina Mladenovic.
The Swiss player of Hungarian heritage temporarily gave up the game due to a foot injury five years ago, and started work as a waitress to prepare herself for a career in hotel management.
Barely two years after making her comeback she also made the semi-finals at Roland Garros, where she took the first set off Serena Williams before being crushed.
She reduced the Parisians to silence by subduing the feisty Mladenovic seamlessly through the hiatuses.
‘We had all the seasons in one day – there was a storm, sunshine and probably even snow, ‘ she said.
The conditions had been particularly horrendous early on, with gale force winds blowing the clay into the players’ faces.
The last French hope standing is now Caroline Garcia, who plays Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday. The winner of the tournament may come from the other remaining quarter final, between Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina.
The highlight of the expanded men’s programme is expected to be Djokovic taking on Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the Austrian deemed to be a future champion.
