The rain delays the match between Jódar and Lehecka in Montreal
Due to a storm, the round of 16 match between the Spanish tennis player and the Czech player will be postponed for more than 2 hours.
Bad news coming from the ATP Montreal 2026, as the rain has halted the day's events for at least 1 hour. This means that the match in the round of 16 between Rafael Jódar and Jiri Lehecka might not start until 02:00 AM (peninsular time), so it will be an all-nighter to see if the Spanish player continues his good form and advances to the quarter-finals in a US tour where he is playing exceptional tennis.
Initially, Jódar and Lehecka were supposed to start at 00:00 AM, but the rain arrived at the worst moment, and the forecast is not promising. The match between Arthur Rinderknech and Brandon Nakashima is at 6-7, 7-5, and 4-4, which means that for the match between the Spaniard and the Czech to begin, the rain must stop, and the duel between the Frenchman and the American must finish.
Furthermore, it must be noted that the match between Rinderknech and Nakashima is the last of the daytime session, so once it ends, there will need to be a session change. The daytime audience will exit, and the nighttime audience will enter, which implies more extra waiting time. This means that it is highly likely that the delay will extend beyond 02:00 AM.
For this reason, all Masters 1000 should have retractable roofs
All of this is in case the rain lasts only one hour, but there is also the possibility that the storm extends and the match starts even later. Additionally, conditions will be much heavier due to the rain and humidity, which will make the ball slower. Jódar has been playing very fast tennis, relying on his serve and flat groundstrokes, but we must not forget that Lehecka is also a hard court specialist.
The debate arises again about Masters 1000 like the one in Montreal not having a retractable roof to prevent such situations. It is incomprehensible that tournaments like the Mutua Madrid Open have up to 3 covered courts, while others like the one in Montreal don’t have even one. The good news is that, in theory, the storm should not take long to pass, and it won't rain again for the rest of the night, so the match should not be delayed further.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, La lluvia retrasa el partido entre Jódar y Lehecka en Montreal