NEW YORK -- After two days of rain at the U.S. Open, some players were asking a question that also occurred to thousands of rather damp fans.
How come there's no roof?
"We've been talking about covers since the '80s," Martina Navratilova said. "Yesterday, they spent more time drying the courts than it rained. It's like, when are they going to learn? We have no say on it. Yesterday, it was two hours of play, six hours of drying."
The Australian Open has a retractible roof over two of its courts. Wimbledon has a tent to cover its center court during rain delays. There is no cover over any court at the National Tennis Center and the drying operation includes youngsters wiping the courts with towels.
Arlen Kantarian, the USTA's chief executive for professional tennis, said a roof is not in the stadium's immediate future. "It is not in the plans today," he said. "But we would never say never."
Kantarian said the USTA had talked to a stadium consulting company.
"One of the many, many reasons is to take a more in-depth look at whether or not it's feasible both structurally and financially to put a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium," he said.
Just two matches were completed Monday and rain prevented any play until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, seven hours after the scheduled start of matches. Top-seeded Andre Agassi had just broken Taylor Dent to lead 5-4 and was about to serve for the first set when play was suspended again after 31 minutes of play.
It was a depressing turn of events for players, fans and officials.
Tournament referee Brian Earley, charged with fitting matches into a tight two-week schedule, seemed worn out.
The schedule scramble started early when it was clear that the day's matches would not start on time. Almost immediately, the fourth-round match between top-seeded Kim Clijsters and No. 5 Amelie Mauresmo that was to start the program, was switched to 5 p.m. But at that hour, a mist continued to fall over the courts, preventing any play.
Kantarian said, "I'm told we are up to roughly an inch of rain in the past couple of days. The forecast right now is not all that optimistic."
Because play did not begin before 5 p.m., tickets purchased for Tuesday's afternoon session could be exchanged for day sessions on Wednesday or Thursday or for the same session next year. The same policy was in place following Monday's rainout.
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