Nadal through as injured Djokovic concedes

Second seed Rafael Nadal of Spain has won his men’s singles semi-final match today after fourth seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia retired through injury.

Djokovic made light of yesterday's five-hour last eight epic against Marcos Baghdatis to take the first set off Nadal on Court One.

Djokovic got off to a flying start by breaking the Spaniard's first service game of the match.

Nadal, by contrast, had enjoyed a relatively serene three-set win over Thomas Berdych yesterday.

But Djokovic looked relatively nerveless as he served out and took the first set 6-3, rounding things off with a powerful smash.

But with a smash to end a spectacular rally, Nadal broke his opponent immediately at the start of the second set and suddenly seemed re-energised the task in hand.

By contrast, Djokovic cut a sorry figure, limping around the baseline and apparently plagued by a left foot injury to go along with the back problem he had played through in the last two rounds.

Nadal double-broke for 5-1 when Djokovic played a simple forehand long, and duly served out to take the second set 6-1 and level the match at 1-1.

Djokovic's troubles were clearly increasing and he had a medical time-out before the start of the third set.

But after saving two break points to hold his first service game of the set, Djokovic was broken to go 2-1 behind and his movement clearly became restricted.

After a feeble forehand into the net booked Nadal a double-break, the Serb succumbed to the inevitable and was forced to retire, handing the Spaniard a place back in the final 3-6 6-1 4-1, retired.