Jannik Sinner’s semi-final with Daniil Medvedev at the Italian Open was interrupted on Friday after rain began to fall in Rome, with the world number one leading 6-2, 5-7, 4-2.
Organisers said that play would not resume before 10.15pm local time (2015GMT), on a day in which both last four clashes in the men’s tournament were affected by bad weather.
Casper Ruud’s 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Luciano Darderi was paused for nearly two hours earlier on Friday after a thunderstorm rolled over the Italian capital.
Sinner is hunting a record-breaking sixth straight Masters 1000 tournament victory ahead of the French Open which starts later this month.
Earlier, Casper Ruud reached the final after dismantling Italy’s Luciano Darderi 6-1, 6-1 in a rain-interrupted match.
Norwegian Ruud, a specialist on clay, dealt with flamboyant Darderi with the minimum of fuss, even after having to wait nearly two hours to restart a match he was already winning easily.
A huge downpour paused, but had no impact on, Ruud’s march to his first final since winning in Stockholm in October last year.
“It’s my 10th semi-final I think in a Masters 1000 and it was his first so you try to use that experience to your advantage and I think I did that well today,” said Ruud.
“He was maybe a little bit stressed, a little bit nervous of the occasion, but I tried to stay focused and kind of in my own tunnel vision.”
When play was stopped Ruud was 4-1 up and at advantage in game six of the first set, which he immediately won after the restart on centre court in Rome.
Not including the rain interruption Ruud took little more than an hour to see off Darderi to win a tour-leading 140th match on clay since the start of 2020, in which time he has won more tournaments on the surface than any other ATP player.
