Italian tennis star Francesca Schiavone has demanded an explanation from the authorities of Wimbledon regarding the rain rules that were employed for the tournament this year, following an extremely stand-off on court that effectively handed victory to her opponent Petra Kvitova and a place in the quarter finals of the tournament.

The Italian, a former winner of the French Open at Roland Garros has blasted the way the chair umpire handled the match that took place on court number 3 of the All England Club, adding that the match should have been stopped when the rain hit.

The 32 year old Schiavone had taken advantage of some wayward stroke play from Kvitova to claim the first set quite comfortably. However, with the match poised at 6-5 in favor of Kvitova and struck at deuce on the serve of the big hitting Italian, she requested the match umpire to stop the match temporarily.

There was a light drizzle going on at that time and the chair umpire Fiona Edwards, instead of ordering the ground staff to pull the covers on the ground, asked the players to wait it out in their chairs. On some websites, fans could place online bets on how long they thought the rain would last!

After an eight minute delay, the match finally started again but the disruption had taken its toll on Francesca Schiavone and she lost the second set 7-5. There was another rain delay for five minutes during the third set of the match but by that time, Schiavone had lost her grip on the match and Kvitova broke her serve quite easily to record a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win and advance to the quarter finals.

And according to Francesca Schiavone, it was surprising to see the chair umpire not postponing the match and added that she would like to know what the rules state for situations like these at the Big W.

Schaivone has a great chance of winning when the Olympics returns to Wimbledon next month, with the latest tennis betting odds making her 6th favourite.