Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a standalone record 25th Grand Slam title by swatting aside third seed Alexander Zverev to reach the French Open semi-finals.
The 38-year-old sixth seed won 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 to set up a meeting with world number one Jannik Sinner on Friday.
Djokovic, who has three Roland Garros titles, lost the opening set to 2024 runner-up Zverev after being broken in the first game of the match.
But the Serb great did not drop serve again, although he had to survive a 41-shot exchange on break point at 3-2 in the fourth set on his way to sealing a record-extending 51st Grand Slam semi-final appearance.
“My way of playing is based on running, but at my age it’s not so easy to run so much,” said Djokovic, who is the second oldest man to reach the French Open semi-finals.
There, he will face Sinner, who cruised into the last four with a ruthless straight-set victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik earlier on Thursday.
The Italian is still yet to drop a set at Roland Garros after winning 6-1 7-5 6-0 and bringing 62nd-ranked Bublik’s remarkable run to an end.
Sinner is hunting a first major title on the Paris clay having previously only gone as far as the semis, losing a five-set thriller to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz last year.
Djokovic or Sinner will meet the winner of defending champion Alcaraz and Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti, who also play on Friday.
Djokovic shows Grand Slam desire remains strong
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While age is clearly catching up on Djokovic, his insatiable appetite for Grand Slam success shows no signs of slowing down.
A patchy season by his lofty standards has led to questions about his stamina and motivation, while the departure of rival-turned-coach Andy Murray from his team also indicated things were not functioning as he hoped.
But when the major tournaments come around, Djokovic is always still primed to challenge in the latter stages.
In Melbourne, he defied the odds to beat Alcaraz and reach the semi-finals, although the physical exertions in getting there led to a hamstring tear which meant he had to retire injured against Germany’s Zverev in the last-four encounter.
Nevertheless, it showed he still had the desire and capability to beat the younger generation.
Zverev, 28, was once part of the first crop expected to replace Djokovic, Murray, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
This defeat was another illustration of how he is often unable to problem-solve against Djokovic, who won four of his eight break points.
Often accused of being too passive, he was rooted deep behind the baseline for much of the contest and paid the price as Djokovic took control with his craftmanship.
With belief or focus rarely wavering, the Serb started dictating the patterns of play and used the drop shot effectively to unsettle Zverev.
When the three-time Grand Slam runner-up finally thought his chance of a comeback had arrived midway through the fourth set, he was denied in arguably the point of the tournament.
Djokovic showed all his elasticity and endurance to deny his opponent the opportunity to turn the match around.
It enabled him to serve out victory after three hours and 17 minutes as Zverev could not return another deft drop shot.
