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The Latest: Women's tour criticizes French Open scheduling

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PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the French Open (all times local):

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7 p.m.

Latisha Chan of Taiwan and Ivan Dodig of Croatia are the first duo to win two consecutive French Open mixed doubles championships — and they beat Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Mate Pavic of Croatia in the final both times.

The unseeded pair of Chan and Dodig defeated the second-seeded Dabrowski and Pavic 6-1, 7-6 (5) for this year’s title Friday.

It’s Dodig’s third trophy in Paris. He teamed with Marcelo Melo to win the men’s doubles title in 2015.

In women’s doubles, second-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France and Timea Babos of Hungary advanced to face Zheng Saisai and Duan Ying-Ying of China in the final.

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6:35 p.m.

The semifinal between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem has been suspended for the day because of rain in the third set.

The players split the first two sets — Thiem took the opener 6-2, then Djokovic grabbed the second 6-3 — and Thiem was up a break at 3-1 in the third when action was halted.

About 45 minutes later, tournament officials announced the match would resume Saturday.

The No. 1-seeded Djokovic has won 26 consecutive Grand Slam matches as he bids for a fourth major title in a row and 16th overall.

No. 4 Thiem seeks his first major championship. He was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 2018.

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The winner of their semifinal will face Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final. He beat Roger Federer earlier Friday.

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5:40 p.m.

There’s another rain delay in the semifinal match between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem.

After splitting the opening two sets, Thiem had just broken for a 3-1 lead in the third when the tarp was brought out to cover the court.

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5:05 p.m.

There has been a brief rain delay in the semifinal between top-ranked Novak Djokovic and No. 4 Dominic Thiem.

Thiem had won the first set 6-2 and Djokovic was leading the second 3-2 on serve when the chair umpire sent the players into the locker rooms. They returned to the court 10 minutes later and resumed play.

There was also an earlier rain delay after Thiem broke to take a 2-1 lead in the first set. The players remained on the court then and resumed after only three minutes.

Also, Djokovic asked to speak to a Grand Slam supervisor during the first set when he complained that it was too windy to play. But the supervisor said play would only be suspended if it became too dangerous.

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3:30 p.m.

Rafael Nadal beat rival Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to reach his 12th French Open final.

Nadal improved to 6-0 against Federer at Roland Garros, where they last met in 2011, and 24-15 overall.

Federer had won their past five matches, but all of those were on hard courts. This one was on clay, where Nadal is nearly unbeatable.

He is now 92-2 for his career in Paris as he pursues a record 12th title there and 18th Grand Slam trophy overall.

In Sunday’s final, Nadal will face top-ranked Novak Djokovic or No. 4 Dominic Thiem

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1 p.m.

Australian player Ash Barty has reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open.

The eighth-seeded Barty ended the run of 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3.

Barty will face another teenager, Marketa Vondrousova, in the final. Vondrousova beat Johanna Konta 7-5, 7-6 (2).

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12:50 p.m.

Nineteen-year-old Marketa Vondrousova is the first teenage finalist at the French Open in more than a decade.

The 38th-ranked Czech player beat 26th-seeded Johanna Konta 7-5, 7-6 (2) to reach the final without dropping a set.

The last teenager to reach the final at Roland Garros was Ana Ivanovic, who was also 19 when she finished runner-up to Justine Henin in 2007.

Vondrousova saved three set points while trailing 3-5 in the opening set.

Vondrousova will face either eighth-seeded Ash Barty or 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova for the title.

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11:20 a.m.

The women’s semifinals are starting at Roland Garros on an unusual day and at unusual courts — and the placement of the matches away from the main stadium has been criticized by the head of the women’s tennis tour.

WTA CEO Steve Simon says the tour is “extremely disappointed” by the scheduling and calls it “unfair and inappropriate.”

Normally, all French Open singles semifinals are held in Court Philippe Chatrier, with the women on Thursday and men on Friday. But after a full day of play was washed out by rain on Wednesday, tournament officials were forced to shuffle the schedule.

With quarterfinal action moved to Thursday, the women’s semifinals got shifted to Friday, sharing the day with the men’s semis.

With more rain in the forecast Friday, the decision was made to put the two women’s semifinals on simultaneously at the second- and third-biggest courts at Roland Garros, starting just after 11 a.m.

The two men’s semifinals, including Rafael Nadal against Roger Federer, were to be played back-to-back at Chatrier.

Simon’s statement said the women “earned their right to play on the biggest stage.” It added that the WTA thinks “other solutions were possible,” although didn’t offer any.

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9 a.m.

All four French Open singles semifinals are scheduled on the same day and the most-anticipated matchup features Rafael Nadal against Roger Federer.

The other men’s semifinal Friday is Novak Djokovic against Dominic Thiem.

It is the first time since 2011 that the four men seeded 1-4 all reached the semifinals at Roland Garros.

Federer vs. Nadal is one of the great rivalries in sports. This will be their 39th meeting overall, and sixth at the French Open — but first in eight years.

In the women’s semifinals, 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova tries to follow up her upset over defending champion Simona Halep by beating No. 8 seed Ash Barty.

The other women’s matchup is Johanna Konta against 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.

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More AP tennis coverage: https://www.apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.

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