Novak Djokovic is hoping the US Open will finally see sense and construct roofs over the show courts after rain disrupted the schedules for the third year in succession.
The tournament has been postponed until a third Monday for the past two years and that seems almost a certainty this year thanks to the heavy showers which have wiped out play over the past couple of days.Despite it's status as one of the top four events in tennis, the US Open's provisions for dealing with rain are archaic for the 21st century with no covers and officials having to wipe the cement surface dry with hand towels.
Djokovic has been left waiting until Thursday to play his quarter-final match with Janko Tipsarevic and the world number one is desperately hoping the tournament will follow suit with the rest of the majors in constructing a roof.
"It's been like this in New York for the last couple of years. It's been happening more often than we expect it to so maybe this tournament should consider a roof in the future,'' he told ESPN.
The two-time finalist will be pleased to hear that plans are currently being made to remodel both Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadium with retractable roofs. Arthur Ashe will be made much smaller to accommodate this as putting a roof on the current towering stadium presents an engineering and financial nightmare.