Alexander Zverev will take on Flavio Cobolli in the French Open final after the Italian was dramatically given a free pass through to his maiden grand slam decider.
Tenth seed Cobolli had been due to take on countryman Matteo Arnaldi but it was announced around 25 minutes before the pair were due to walk out on court that the 25-year-old was suffering with a virus and would not be able to play.
Arnaldi was the most unexpected of the semi-finalists being ranked outside the top 100, while he had spent a record 19 hours and 42 minutes in reaching the last four.
Speaking at a press conference, Arnaldi said: “It’s difficult to be here, it’s not what I wanted to do but last night I started to feel not very well.
“I woke up at 1am and I started vomiting. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t sleep at all. Around 6 or 7am I woke up and vomited again and it was pretty bad. We called the doctor in the room, he came, gave me some stuff.
“I was hoping it could just be something from dinner but throughout the day I couldn’t eat anything. It’s tough because, for how the tournament was, how many hours I spent on court, I was actually feeling very good.
“To have to withdraw from a first grand slam semi-final is not something you wish on anybody. I feel sorry for everyone that came to watch us.”
Ticket-holders for the one-match night session will be refunded.
The news came through after Zverev’s march towards an expected first grand slam title continued with a semi-final victory over Jakub Mensik.
The second seed is trying to shake off the tag of best male player never to win a slam, and the tennis gods appear to be smiling on him in Paris – although Cobolli will now be well rested ahead of Sunday’s match.
Zverev has seen his big rivals for the title fall away while he has eased through the draw, dropping just two sets, and he overcame a third-set wobble in a 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-3 success against 26th seed Mensik.
The 20-year-old Czech has announced himself as a likely major contender in the near future this fortnight, knocking out Alex De Minaur, Andrey Rublev and fellow young gun Joao Fonseca.
His run has been all the more impressive considering Mensik needed a wheelchair to get back to the locker room after collapsing in the heat after his second-round match.
But he had spent four hours more on court in reaching the last four than Zverev and he could not sustain the consistent level needed to really challenge the German.
Sunday will be Zverev’s fourth slam final and second in Paris after he lost to Carlos Alcaraz from two-sets-to-one up two years ago.
He came even closer in his maiden final against Dominic Thiem at the US Open in 2020, blowing a two-set lead and losing in a deciding tie-break, while he was well beaten by Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final last year.
It appeared Zverev may have built up too much scar tissue ever to take the final step but patience looks to have paid off.
For 10 games this was a tight, high-quality contest, with both men looking to use their fearsome backhands and catch each other out with drop shots.
Had Mensik taken one of three chances to break at 4-3, things might have played out differently, but he was a little passive and paid the price three games later.
Two double faults opened the door for Zverev and the German took his opportunity before sealing the set with an ace after exactly an hour.
The energy that Mensik had mustered at the start of the contest seemed to drain out of him through the second set and he took a medical timeout at 2-1 in the third for what appeared to be a neck issue.
Zverev was so in control that the crowd looked in danger of nodding off en masse but they were roused back to life when the world number three lost concentration, Mensik broke serve for the first time and suddenly the Czech had a set on the board.
But the hope that a meaningful contest might develop lasted only as long as it took Zverev to break serve in the second game of the fourth set.
British umpire James Keothavong was kept busy adjudicating on a number of close calls, several of which brought him into conflict with Zverev, while he also gave the German a time violation for taking too long changing his racket.
But this time the 29-year-old avoided any dips, converting his first match point when Mensik netted a backhand.
