The 2023 Italian Open is about to start but Mother Nature might put a spanner on things. With dark skies and torrential downpours expected over Rome for days to come and the new Rome Masters expanding for the first time ever this year to a 96-player event it seems the organisers will have to be praying to all the gods they know just to manage to put up some kind of an event.
As things stand right now the weather forecasts pretty much rule out many matches being played between Wednesday, May 10th, and next Tuesday, May 16th. If that truly transpires one could wonder how the amount of matches that need to be played will actually be fitted in. Could this be the year adverse weather finally fully cancels a Masters event? Many warned that this was about to happen sooner rather than later.
Detailed Weather Forecast For Rome
At the moment of writing here is the detailed picture regarding the weather forecast for Rome. Things still look OK for Tuesday, May 09th. This is when the women’s event is scheduled to begin. Now, late-night emergency meetings are taking place in Rome to decide if the men should start playing on that day too. The Men’s event wasn’t originally scheduled to begin until Wednesday, May 10th. However, the forecast for Wednesday is an 85% chance of rain and heavy, frequent downpours. This likely means that no play will take place on that day at all.
Going forward the prediction for Thursday, May 11th, is 60% rain and again frequent showers. This suggests some breaks in the rain. However, clay courts need significant time to recover after the rain has fallen on them and this will slow things down further.
Going forward nothing much changes in the forecast for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and even Tuesday, May 16th. Right now the prediction for all those days is between 55 and 70% precipitation. With the Italian Open not having the luxury of a roof cover for any of their stadiums schedule chaos is guaranteed. Could it get worse than that? That will depend on how merciless the darkening clouds over Rome will be in the next few days.
Could the 2023 Italian Open Be In Jeopardy?
It is probably a bit too early to worry about the full cancellation of the 2023 Italian Open. However, if the weather really turns for the worst and there are no longer breaks between downpours so some matches could be completed every day things might change come the first weekend.
If the round 2 matches are not completed by Sunday it becomes almost unthinkable to finish the tournament without asking players to play 2, or even 3, games on the same day. However, with the French Open starting right after nobody would want to do such a crazy thing. This will lead to mass withdraws and then the organisers will have to decide whether to cancel the event or persist with a botched schedule.
As we all settle to watch the rain falling over Rome we cross our fingers that when it’s taking a break we’ll be able to see some tennis from this iconic tournament too.
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