By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic has been forced to withdraw from his French Open quarterfinal against Casper Ruud due to the knee injury he sustained in his fourth round win on Monday.
Djokovic had a scan for the injury on Tuesday, having blamed the “slippery” Roland Garros clay courts for aggravating the problem.
The scan revealed Djokovic has a “torn medial meniscus” in his right knee, said French Open organisers.
The injury has ended his hopes of winning a 25th Grand Slam title – which would be an outright all-time record – on the Paris clay.
As a result of withdrawing, Djokovic will lose his status as the world number one and be replaced by Italy’s Jannik Sinner after the French Open.
It remains to be seen if he will able to regain fitness in time for Wimbledon, where he is a seven-time champion.
The grass-court championships start at the All England Club on 1 July.
The Paris 2024 Olympics starts at Roland Garros on 27 July.
Djokovic’s withdrawal means Ruud has booked his spot in the semifinals where he will play the winner of Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur’s quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Meanwhile Jannik Sinner continued his pursuit of a second Grand Slam in 2024 by comfortably beating Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semi-finals of the French Open.
The Australian Open winner beat the Bulgarian 10th seed 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in Paris.
Italian second seed Sinner had never gone further than the quarter-final stage at Roland Garros but looked in total control on Tuesday.
Sinner will face Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz or Greek ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who play later on Tuesday, in the last four.