Murray takes swipe at Roland Garros

Andy Murray believes the French Open could take a leaf out of Wimbledon's book over deciding when a court is fit to play on.

Murray was blasted off Suzanne Lenglen Court by Tomas Berdych in the fourth round, the Czech sealing a comprehensive 6-4 7-5 6-3 victory in a match that did not finish until 9.34pm local time.

That was largely because of a 36-minute rain delay at the halfway mark, which left the court damp and slippery, much to Murray's frustration.

There were repeated verbal outbursts from the world number four over the condition of the clay, the balls and the fading light.

Murray felt play should have been suspended at some point in the third set, claiming tournament officials should cede authority on the matter to players.

"It's easy for someone not playing," said the 23-year-old, who insisted he did not want to make excuses for his defeat.

"You can understand if the crowd want to watch more tennis, normally at an exciting part in the match, if it's 9.30pm in the evening or the supervisor is wanting the matches to finish.

"But sometimes the conditions can become tricky. They have to stop at Wimbledon because of the dew on the court gets very slippery. It's not always because of the light that they stop playing.

"Wimbledon, they do a very good job of that. Here, I don't know."

Murray's second-round match against Juan Ignacio Chela was also dogged by rain and the Scot admitted afterwards he had not dealt with the delays as well as he would have liked.

The hiatus came while he was leading 4-3 in the second set, having not long cancelled out an early Berdych break.

"I had got myself back into the match," he said.

"I don't necessarily think it was anything to do with the way that I handled it.

"It just stops your momentum a little bit. But I still had a little chance at 5-4; I had 30-30. I had a little chance there, I just couldn't take it."

Berdych insisted he was not distracted by Murray's on-court histrionics, suggesting they may have been a ploy to try to put him off.

The Czech 15th seed, who will play Mikhail Youzhny in his first ever French Open quarter-final, said: "My coach told me when the match was suspended, 'He looks like he doesn't want to play'.

"Maybe it's his style that he wants to make the opponent sleep and then he just comes and wins the points.

"But it didn't work."