Back-to-back matches were scheduled in order to catch up with Thursday’s abandonment and the organisers were thankful to see the completion of three third round ties, Richard Gasquet seeing off an out of sorts Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2, Janko Tipsarevic beating Marin Cilic by the same score and Mardy Fish coming from a set down to beat Juan Monaco.
With Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal all withdrawing through injury, it was left to Novak Djokovic to provide the tournament’s star attraction and the Serbian looked on course to book his quarter final place, leading Sam Querrey by a set and a break before the rain came down.
Three more third round matches are also outstanding, including Tommy Haas v Radek Stepanek, Jeremy Chardy v Marcel Granollers and John Isner v Phillip Kohlschreiber.
If the rain persists as the weather forecast suggests, the tournament organisers may be forced to play back to back matches on the Saturday and Sunday to finish the tournament before the start of the next Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati on Monday.
