PARIS — For more than three hours on Friday, Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev extended rallies and sets far beyond the norm. Égalité, the French word for deuce, began to sound more like a mantra than the score as the chair umpire kept repeating it, game after game.
But then suddenly this French Open semifinal, which looked set to run and run, came to an abrupt and very painful halt as Zverev, the tall and lanky German star, rolled his right ankle chasing a Nadal forehand late in the second set.
Zverev screamed, released his racket and tumbled to the red clay.