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Djokovic dons hat as old friend rain returns

Novak Djokovic managed to complete his match on a rain-disrupted day © AP

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Novak's new hat

Novak Djokovic is known for his brilliant tennis and his sense of humour. It was the latter that came to the fore prior to his match with Guido Pella. Novak might suggest he has a natty new piece of headgear to take to his clothing makers, but we really don't think this is going to catch on.

Walking around locker room, showing off my new accessory for SS13 hahaha #RG13 twitter.com/DjokerNole/sta…

— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) May 30, 2013

The turnaround

Those hardy souls who braved the chilly conditions out on Court 3 would have been right to think a shock was on the cards as Garbine Muguruza raced into a 3-0 lead against the 18th seed Jelena Jankovic. That, though, was as good as it got for the Spaniard as Jankovic raced through the next 12 games to claim a 6-3 6-0 win.

A delightful drop

Kristina Mladenovic put up a brave display, but was ultimately outclassed by Sam Stosur. The French youngster is tipped for a big future in the game and she showed flashes of brilliance and arguably produced the shot of the match. Stosur had run through five games on the spin and was threatening to take another when working break points, but under pressure Mladenovic produced a quite brilliant wrong-footing drop shot that gave her opponent no play.

Rain stops play but play continues

The wet weather has been the main player at Roland Garros so far, and on Thursday the rain halted play for a while once again. Djokovic was desperate to get onto court and avoid playing the waiting game like he did against David Goffin, and against Guido Pella in his second round clash the Serb encountered... the rain.

But, where play was stopped in the world No. 1's match, games on other courts continued to go ahead, and some were left perplexed as to why Djokovic and Pella were actually taken off court.

How to solve a problem like Maria

The answer to this question might be the weather. Known already to be a pain during the day, the rain played beautifully into the hands of Eugenie Bouchard, who was being totally outplayed by defending champion Maria Sharapova.

Down a set and a break, Bouchard wanted to get off court as the rain fell heavier than it did in the Djokovic match. The chair umpire refused to pull the players off - much to the delight of Sharapova - and the pair continued to play, but only for a few more points as the rain had battled to the win and ensured Sharapova would be stopped.

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