Nadal needed 4 hours and 20 minutes to beat the 11th seeded Taylor Fritz of the USA in the semi-finals.

Nadal was in a spot of bother with a niggle in the second set but held his nerve to beat Fritz 3-6, 7-5, 3-7, 7-5 and 7-6.

The win means that Nadal remains on course to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon title for a third time.

The Nadal who played with a lot of pain during his successful French Open campaign at Roland Garros said that will be undergoing tests in order to determine what made for one of the hardest days on court in his illustrious career.

“Tomorrow I’m going to have some more tests,” he said. “But difficult to know. It's obvious that I am a player who had a lot of things in my tennis career, so I am used to have things and I am used to hold pain and to play with problems. Knowing that, when I feel something like I felt, that is because something is not going the proper way in abdominal.

“But let's see. It's obvious that today is nothing new. I had these feelings for a couple of days. Without a doubt, today was the worst day. Have been an important increase of pain and limitation. And that's it.

“I managed to win that match. Let's see what's going on tomorrow.”

The King of Clay will face Nick Kyrgios of Australia in the semi-finals on Friday.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport