Novak Djokovic set up a 58th meeting with Rafael Nadal on Wednesday when he reached his 40th Grand Slam semi-final at the French Open despite being held up by 5,000 fans needing to be evacuated to conform with a Covid-19 curfew.

The blockbuster semi-final is confirmed with top seed Djokovic takes on third seed Nadal after four-set wins for both players in the quarter-finals. Nadal and Djokovic were drawn in the same half as the second seed went to world No 2 Daniil Medvedev.

The match will be a repeat of the 2020 final that Nadal stunningly won 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 to lift his 20th Major.

French Open: Nadal storms into 14th semi-final after Schwartzman snaps his straight-sets streak

World number one Djokovic defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 to book his place in the last four in Paris for the 11th time.

Earlier, Nadal, the 13-time champion, beat Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 to make the semi-finals for the 14th time.

With Djokovic’s match extending beyond the national 11pm curfew, play was halted for around 20 minutes at 3-2 in the fourth set so that 5,000 fans could be funnelled out of Court Philippe Chatrier.

More to follow

With AFP inputs

French Open men’s semi-final line-up (x denotes seeding):

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) v Rafael Nadal (ESP x3)

Alexander Zverev (GER x6) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE x5)