Rain forces Open to push up matches

Rumor has it they will play tennis Thursday at the U.S. Open, with four men's fourth-round matches scheduled to begin simultaneously at 11 a.m. If Mother Nature will allow it.

After two days of rain and drizzle and unplayable courts washed out four consecutive sessions, tournament director Jim Curley admitted the revised match plan "is not ideal, for sure. But it's fair for all the players and we're taking the fairness issue seriously."

Since Tuesday's all-day rain, the men in the bottom half of the draw have fallen behind their colleagues in the top half, where Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Janko Tipsarevic are through to the quarterfinals. (Djokovic will play Tipsarevic and Federer will face Tsonga).

So all four show courts will be used for the fourth-rounders, three of which were begun but lasted only 15 minutes Wednesday: Rafael Nadal is trailing Gilles Muller 3-0; Andy Roddick is leading David Ferrer 3-1; and Donald Young is ahead of Andy Murray 2-1. The John Isner-Gilles Simon match had not yet started when rain closed in again shortly after noon Wednesday.

Thursday's weather report is not dramatically better than Wednesday's. Though the women are through to the quarterfinals, four matches were meant to be played yesterday to offer a day off before Friday's semifinals and a Saturday night title match. None of them ever started: Serena Williams vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Caroline Wozniacki vs. Andrea Petkovic, Samantha Stosur vs. Vera Zvonareva and Angelique Kerber vs. Flavia Pennetta.

So the woman also are facing three matches in three days. And the potential increases for a fourth consecutive year that the tournament will be pushed to a third Monday, adversely affecting television coverage, ticket holders and National Tennis Center staff.