Rain defeats Romania’s Halep and Poland’s Radwanska, two of the favorites at Roland Garros

Romanian tennis star Simona Halep lost on Tuesday her Roland Garros fourth round match against Australia’s Samantha Stosur. The match started on Sunday evening and should the rain not started pouring down on the famous French tennis court, Halep might have now been in the quarter finals. She showed a good form on Sunday and, after a few balanced games, she took the initiative and led 5-3 in the first set. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to finish the set. Then, it rained all day on Monday, and all the matches at Roland Garros were suspended. Then, on Tuesday, Samantha Stosur entered the court more determined. She pulled out a great comeback and won the set after tiebreak 7-6. Then, the rain again stopped all the ongoing matches for more than an hour. But the new break didn’t help Halep, who lost the second set 3-6, and was out of the competition. The Australian, who won the US Open in 2011 and played the French Open final in 2010, now has a chance to achieve another great result at a Grand Slam tournament. Halep’s defeat, however, was not as surprising as Polish star Agnieszka Radwanska’s. The tournament’s second favorite lost to Bulgarian WTA no. 102 Tsvetana Pironkova, who pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in the tournament’s history. Radwanska was leading Pironkova 6-2, 3-0 on Sunday, when the rain started. Pironkova won the first six games on Tuesday and the decisive set. The match ended 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 for the Bulgarian, who qualified to the Roland Garros quarter finals for the first time in her career. Romanians Simona Halep and Irina Begu reach the last 16 in Roland Garros editor@romania-insider.com