Rain suspends second French Open semifinal; Wawrinka awaits winner

PARIS – Novak Djokovic has waited and waited to win his first French Open title and complete a career Grand Slam, worrying about when – or perhaps even whether – he would get another chance after coming close in recent years.

Now Djokovic must ponder all of that a little longer: His semifinal against Andy Murray was suspended in the fourth set Friday night, initially halted because of an impending storm and then put off altogether when the rain did arrive minutes later.

The No. 1-seeded Djokovic won the first two sets 6-3, 6-3 and appeared to be in control, before No. 3 Murray took the third 7-5. At 3-all in the fourth, with dark clouds moving in and light fading, they were ushered off the court.

Djokovic and Murray will resume today at 1 p.m. local time, a little more than 16 hours after they stopped.

The eventual winner will face a much-more-rested Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in Sunday’s final.

The eighth-seeded Wawrinka, who eliminated Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, followed that up by defeating France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 6-4 in Friday’s opening semifinal. Wawrinka succeeded largely on the strength of one statistic: He saved 16 of 17 break points.

There were a few whistles and jeers directed at Wawrinka after he ended Tsonga’s bid to give France a men’s champion at its own tournament, something that last happened when Yannick Noah won in 1983.

Women’s final

If Serena Williams is at her best, she would be an overwhelming favorite to win today’s French Open women’s singles title, in large part because she is 8-0 against her opponent, Lucie Safarova.

Plus, the 13th-seeded Safarova has never been this far at a major tournament in singles.

This is Safarova’s 40th appearance at a Grand Slam tournament. Only two women in the Open era of professional tennis, which began in 1968, have played in more majors before winning a title: Marion Bartoli, who won Wimbledon two years ago in her 47th, and Jana Novotna, who won Wimbledon in 1998 in her 45th.