Federer blasts French Open conditions

Roger Federer has hit out at French Open officals after he was forced to finish his second-round clash with Thierry Ascione in near-darkness at Roland Garros.

The world number one and top seed powered through the opening two sets before encountering problems in the third as rain arrived and darkness set in.

He eventually took the third set 10-8 on a tie-break to complete a 6-1 6-2 7-6 victory over Ascione and set up a third-round clash with Italy's Potito Starace.

Federer said: "The conditions were shocking and I tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. It's not easy starting out knowing you have only an hour-and-45-minutes or two hours to complete the match.

"I thought it was a hard call. I know they wanted to get the match over and done with. But what I didn't like was that they thought I'm the favourite, I should win this in straight sets, let's get Roger's match over with.

"What if it doesn't turn out that way? I'd be very upset. I was already not too happy at playing at such a late time. I hate playing into dawn. I could hardly see the ball and it's a very hard situation to deal with. You start stressing out."

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