Paris, May 30: Three-times French Open champion Mats Wilander hit out at Roland Garros officials after the match between Alexander Zverev and Fernando Verdasco was halted, leaving fans wolf-whistling and disappointed.

The match was finely balanced at one set all when German Zverev and his more experienced opponent appeared to question the conditions in Paris, where it had drizzled earlier and the light was starting to fade.

The supervisor decided to call off the contest shortly after 8:30 pm local time, leaving fans frustrated and feeling short-changed.

"I think it is quite ridiculous that they allowed them to stop it... with the players who made that decision," Wilander told the media.

"At that time they could've played at least half an hour more... that could've been the end of the third set, a totally different match, yet now tomorrow the last match of the schedule will suffer."

French Open organisers would not be drawn into a debate.

"The two players agreed to stop the match," they said, when questioned about the decision.

Wilander, champion at the major clay court event in 1982, 1985 and 1988, said that of course Spaniard Verdasco had wanted to stop, but that in agreeing, Zverev had made a "rookie mistake".

"He had all the momentum... the young guy should've just pushed on and insisted on playing.

"Thousands of people in the stadium missed out, we all missed out. (Verdasco's) experience won through.

"The fans should've had more of a say. Nobody won that. Definitely, this helps Verdasco tomorrow. Tomorrow it is best of three."

The crowd's frustration was understandable; this match was probably the pick of the day's schedule on Philippe Chatrier and it wasn't all that dark when play was suspended. The officials and players were perhaps not keen to risk having to come off in the middle of a set.

Zverev is considered as one of the outsiders for the French Open title this time out coming into Roland Garros having announced his arrival at the top of the game by beating Novak Djokovic to win the Italian Open earlier this month.

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