Rafael Nadal is one win away from a 22nd Grand Slam title after Alexander Zverev was forced to retire from an epic French Open semi final clash.
The 'King of Clay' took a gruelling first set 7-6, and when serving to force another tie-break, his opponent tumbled as he attempted a forehand down the line. Zverev duly left the court in a wheelchair, and minutes later came back out on crutches to collect his belongings as he agonisingly had to retire.
A tearful Zverev did receive rapturous applause for his efforts, despite the vast majority of the crowd favouring Nadal during the clash. The iconic player will now play the winner of the Casper Ruud v Marin Cilic match in Sunday's final.
If there were question marks over Nadal's physical state following his draining quarter final win over Novak Djokovic, then the Spaniard answered them by coming through a draining 91-minute first set. And that was despite a dream start from Zverez, who broke in the opening game and then duly held to love.
And the German looked in little trouble when at 4-3, a double fault handed Nadal a first break point. He couldn't take it, but when a second opportunity came, a Zverev forehand went long and the contest was levelled.
But at 5-4 Nadal, the 25-year-old showed his own fighting qualities by saving three break points to prevail, and moved 0-30 up in the next game following an 18-shot rally. Two break points followed, but on both occasions, big serves saved Nadal.
A dramatic tie-break then ensued, with a fired-up Zverev unleashing a superb winner to move 6-2 ahead - only for Nadal to produce a sublime winner en route to remarkably making it 6-6. Two chances for Nadal then went begging, but at 8-8, Zverev weakly went into the net with a forehand - before a sublime winner from the Mallorca man finally sealed the set.
There was no let up in intensity at the start of the second, and in a bizarre sequence, the first four games all yielded breaks of serves - as well as an incredible 44-shot exchange between the two. After surviving yet another break point, Zverev did finally hold serve to move 3-2 ahead.
And as fatigue appeared to creep into Nadal's game, he failed to hold for the third successive time whilst in contrast, Zverev was upping the ante. The madness continued though as the next three games resulted in further service breaks, with the German double faulting three times when serving for the set at 5-3.
Order was restored before the chaotic tie took another twist, with Zverev putting a forehand wide as Nadal forced a second successive tie-break. But as he did so, he went over badly on his ankle, and the screams that followed indicated the worst.
He was taken off the Court Philippe-Chatrier in a wheelchair, and after being assessed, medical staff concluded he could not continue. Sure enough, he emerged on crutches as the match was declared over.
In his court-side interview with Mats Wilandeer, Nadal labelled the affair a "super-tough clash," and had words of sympathy for his opponent: "I know much he is fighting to win a Grand Slam but for the moment he was very unlucky. I'm sure he's gonna win, not just one, but much more, and I wish him all the very best."
