体坛英语新闻：Murray, Wawrinka into French Open last 16 through a rain-spoiled matchday

PARIS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- On a matchday spoiled by the rain, top seed Andy Murray and No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka shrugged off a lackluster start to sweep into the men's singles last 16 at the 2017 French Open here on Saturday.

The rain, which became increasingly heavy around 5 p.m. local time, affected a total of 10 matches on different courts. The referee made a decision to suspend the match as the condition was not fit to play. Fans left their seats to hide from the rain, and the court was later covered with a hug tarp.

All remaining matches on Saturday will be put off until Sunday, the organizing committee announced around 7:15 p.m. local time.

Murray led 6-3 in their previous nine meetings against Juan Martin Del Potro, who lost to him in the final at the Rio Olympic Games last year.

Murray needed almost one and a half hours to nail the first set as he uppered in the tiebreak 10-8, only to see their Argentine opponent stand at the net for a while to show frustration between the interval.

"Too much frustration. I couldn't believe that I lost that set, because I had many opportunities to win. I have been playing great, great points during the whole first set," said Del Potro.

Murray, who finished a total of 44 winners and converted 6 of 17 break points, prevailed in the following two sets with 7-5, 6-0.

"When he's playing well, he is one of the best players in the world," Murray commented on Del Potro's performance, adding that playing against the Argentine this early in the Grand Slam tournament is obviously not easy, but can be a very positive thing at the same time.

Wawrinka won in a similar manner, as he was forced a tiebreak by the Italian Fabio Fognini. The 2015 champion won the tiebreak 7-2, before going on to win 6-0, 6-2 in two sets to follow.

Wawrinka will face the winner between Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet, whose duel on the Philippe-Chatrier Court was influenced by the rain when Monfils led 6-5 in the first set.

Chinese women's tennis players Zheng Saisai and Xu Yifan won the doubles second round with their partners, but on different paths.

Zheng, in partnership with Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, had to come back from one set down to beat Abigail Spears and Katarina Srebotnik 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. They will meet Chinese duo of Duan Yingying and Peng Shuai in round of 16.

Xu and Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski, the No. 9 seeds, only needed 55 minutes to win 6-1, 6-2 against Madison Brengle and Anna Smith.

However, Chinese players Liang Chen and Wang Qiang lost to Chan Hao-Ching of Chinese Taipei and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

In the women's singles action, third seed Simona Halep beat Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 and set up a last 16 clash with Carla Suarez Navarro.

Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia booked an all-French contest in round of 16, as the former shocked No. 9 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-1, while the latter saw off Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 4-6, 9-7.