French Open: Federer and Nadal win to set up semi-final clash – live!

Martic holds serve as her opponent tightens up; a pattern is emerging here. As soon as Martic gets back on terms, her level drops. As soon as Vondrousova gets within sight of winning, the nerves kick in. We could be here a while. Or five more minutes. Who knows. 5-5 in the second.

Well, then. Two match points have come and gone for Vondrousova, and Martic can level the set. She’s in control of the game, but again lets her opponent back in, and an ill-advised drop shot brings up deuce…

Vondrousova saves the break point with a well-timed drop shot, but Martic has another chance after the match’s longest rally, showing quicker hands at the net. The Czech dominates the next point, Martic controls the next. Another break chance as the game goes past eight minutes… and this time her opponent nets!

Martic swings between well-constructed points and dismal unforced errors, allowing Vondrousova to work her way to a second match point – but she double faults! The nerves are kicking in now, and Martic attacks a short ball to earn a break point…

Martic is trying to keep the rallies short – the longer they goes on, the worse her chances of winning them. That leads to a couple of rash shots that let Vondrousova back in from 40-15 down. A wild mishit then hands the Czech a match point, but some crucial big first serves get her out of trouble.

Will the pressure tell on Vondrousova? Not a bit of it, as she marches to two break-back points, then pummels Martic into submission from the baseline. She’s back ahead in the set, and after another nerveless service game moves 5-2 up, and one game away.

Martic has rediscovered her mojo, breaking Vondrousova to get this set back on serve. In the men’s doubles, Britain’s Joe Salisbury and partner Rajeev Ram are out, beaten 6-4, 7-6 (6) by France’s Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

The winner of this will play – as if you needed telling – Johanna Konta. The British No 1 is into her third grand slam semi-final, but is focused on going the distance:

Vondrousova takes a spill coming into the net, but appears to be OK beyond getting covered in clay. Martic stops the rot in this set with a service hold, but still trails 6-7, 1-3.

This match has turned dramatically in Vondrousova’s favour. From 5-3 down, she took the first set to a tie-break, won it 7-1, and has now broken Martic to lead 2-0. No signs of nerves yet from the 19-year-old.

The teenager rattles off the next two points, winning the breaker 7-1. She’s one set away from a semi-final with Jo Konta.

Thanks, Simon. We’re into a first-set tie break, and Vondrousova has the edge after ending a rally with a delicate drop shot. A horrible mis-hit from Martic puts the Czech 5-1 up at the changeover…

With the day’s final singles match delicately poised, I’m going to hand over to Niall McVeigh. Bye!

Martic wins the first point with a phenomenal passing shot, probably the best shot of the match so far, and then wins an attritional second, just clobbering the ball back again and again until Vondrousova makes a mistake. From there, Vondrousova wins four points on the spin to hold, the last with both players at the net, trading mediocre volleys until the younger player finally put it away. 5-5.

Not so fast! Vondrousova sets up break point with a vicious forehand, and then Martic miscues a forehand wide at the end of a gruelling rally of effort-packed, high-powered tennis (though it’s mostly not very accurate, with the ball landing very much midcourt).

Martic has won all four of her previous meetings against Vondrousova, all of them in the last two years (the Czech is only 19, so there weren’t many opportunities before that), and is taking control of this one now: she breaks again, and leads 5-3 in the first set.

Martic breaks straight back to level the scores at 3-3. To return briefly to the doubles, Martin and Chardy provided the headline result of the competition so far by knocking out the No1 seeds, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, in the third round, and will of course have the overwhelming support of the French fans behind them.

Also on court at the moment is Britain’s Joe Salisbury, who with America’s Rajeev Ram is seeded 11^th in the men’s doubles. They have however just lost the first set of their quarter-final, being broken to love in its final game by the French pairing of Fabrice Martin and Jeremy Chardy.

Break points! Vondrousova has a couple of opportunities to make a breakthrough on Martic’s serve, and she takes the second of them with a forehand down the line. She leads 3-2 in the first set.

Here’s some of Roger Federer’s post-match reaction:

Two more holds, both players hitting the ball clean and true if not reaching the heights we enjoyed in the other quarter-final earlier today. Still, there’s time yet.

Both players hold their opening service games in pretty straightforward style, with Vondrousova concluding hers with a classic drop-shot/lob double-whammy.

Who, then, will play Jo Konta in the semi-final? Will it be Petra Martic, the Croatian 31^st seed, or Marketa Vondrousova, the unseeded Czech? We’re about to find out: they have just emerged onto Suzanne Lenglen ahead of their quarter-final.

Here are some highlights from Jo Konta’s press conference today:

A misjudgement from Federer in the first point, leaving a ball which dips to bounce a few inches inside the baseline, gives Wawrinka hope. He levels the game at 15-15 and then serves his first double-fault of the match. A see-saw rally ends with Fed’s forehand dropping just on the line to make it 30-30, and then the No3 seed comes to the net to kill off the next point and set up match point. Wawrinka is furious with how that rally played out and swishes his racket angrily against the clay, and the next point sees him surge to the net to win it.

It becomes a repeated race to the net, and it’s one that Federer keeps winning. At deuce Wawrinka curls a fabulous forehand past him to set up break point, which is saved with a dainty drop-volley, with Wawrinka stranded way beyond the baseline. Federer ekes out another match point, and gives it away with another double fault! Those, though, are his last mistakes, and two more points of impeccable, attacking tennis decide the game!

Meanwhile events are moving fast on Lenglen. Federer has just broken Wawrinka to take a 5-4 lead in the fourth set, and in a few moments he will serve for a place in the semis!

Nadal will play the winner of the Federer-Wawrinka match in the semi-final. It will be his 12^th time in the final four of the French Open – on each of the 11 previous occasions he has gone on to win the thing.

Nadal finds himself 15-30 down, but Nishikori is not to be saved by a late wobble: the Spaniard hits successive service winners to take himself to match point, and when Nishikori miscues a forehand wide, it’s all over!

It looks like Nadal won’t be back for long. He’s 5-3 up now in the third set and about to serve for the match.

The players have warmed up and play is about to resume. They’ve been off for a shade over an hour, which could have helped the fading Nishikori, but perhaps hindered the mid-flow Wawrinka. Time will tell…

There will be no play before 6.30pm local time, or 5.30pm BST. This does not mean that there will be play after that time, but it’s at least promising.

The rain has arrived, along with heavy winds and something not far away from darkness. Time for Parisians to take shelter indoors. We’ll be back when things brighten, which is unlikely to be in less than an hour.

The forecast, according to Eurosport, is for heavy downpours that will last a couple of hours.

There is also a referee on Chatrier, trying to convince the players to leave. Nadal isn’t very happy about it, being as he is 4-2 up in what might prove the last set, but he is overruled and they’re off as well!

The tournament referee is on court, and discussing the future with Federer and Wawrinka. And after a brief chat, and even though no rain has fallen as yet, play is suspended with the score 3-3 in the fourth set.

There are mean, dark clouds gathering above Roland Garros, and the players could be forced off by rainfall at any time. It might be too late to stop Nadal, though: he’s broken in the third set, and leads Nishikori 6-1, 6-1, 3-1.

It’s two injury-affected years since Wawrinka last went past the second round of a Grand Slam, but some of the tennis he is producing here is pretty close to Peak Stan. There’s a backhand crosscourt passing shot in this game that is an absolute snorter. But sadly for him “le maestro Roger Federer est de retour”. There aren’t many players who could live with what Wawrinka is producing here, but Federer is managing it. He wins a couple more break points (he’s had 16 now, taking one), but Wawrinka holds. It’s 3-2 in the fourth set, on serve.

Federer wins two break points on the Wawrinka serve. The first is saved with a fabulous serve down the middle, the second with a thunderous serve out wide followed by a killer forehand. Another excellent forehand, this one more finessed, gives Wawrinka game point, which he loses. And so fortune continues to fluctuate – Federer wins another break point, his 15^th of the match (one converted) – before Wawrinka eventually holds. Absolutely compelling, this.

Absolutely right: Djere was beaten in round three, and Paire in round four (also in five sets).

Nishikori has called on the trainer, who is poking the player’s right arm. Nishikori came back from a double break down in the deciding set against Laslo Djere in the last round, but this looks like a comeback too far.

Meanwhile Rafael Nadal’s stroll on Chatrier continues. He has sealed the second set, and leads Nishikori 6-1, 6-1.

Federer wins the third set on the tie break! At 3-6 Wawrinka holds a couple of service points to keep the battle going, but he then stands so far back to return a second serve that he makes his own life more complicated than it really ought to have been and ends up netting an underpowered backhand. Federer leads 7-6, 4-6, 7-6!

This Federer match is absolutely stonking entertainment. The first point of the tie-break includes an excellent backhand approach from Federer, a brilliant forehand passing shot from Wawrinka, and an absolutely impossible backhand volley winner from Federer.

It’ll take another tie-break to separate Federer and Wawrinka and decide the third set on Lenglen. On Chatrier, Nadal is 4-1 up in the second, serving and basically being completely awesome.

Wawrinka wins a break point and a chance to retake control of the third set. A drop shot brings Federer to the net, but the great man is perfectly happy to be there and puts away a lovely volley. He takes control of the next point, forcing Wawrinka to hoist up an underpowered defensive lob, but Fed mistimes his smash, which balloons wide! From there Federer turns to serve-volleying on his first serve, saves the break point and holds! As, on Chatrier, does Nadal, who leads 3-1 in the second set now.

Nadal has broken right back again, and leads 2-1 in a second set in which neither he nor Nishikori has held serve.

A couple of unexpected momentum-shifts later, Nishikori has broken back to level the second set against Nadal at 1-1, and Wawrinka has held serve, finishing the game with a phenomenal backhand down the line, to take the third set to 5-5!

Nadal wins the first set against Nishikori 6-1, and then breaks in the first game of the second set for good measure. Federer, meanwhile, has executed a stunning turnaround: a few moments ago he was a break down in the third set, now he’s just earned a second set point, with a beautifully-judged lob (Wawrinka’s decision to leave it was less well judged).

Federer earns his ninth break point against Wawrinka and this time, for the first time, he wins it! Or rather, Wawrinka surrenders it, with a limp, overhit forehand from midcourt. It’s 4-4 there, in the third set.

Wawrinka breaks to take a 4-3 lead in the third set against Federer, who is struggling at the moment! The same is not true of Nadal, who has taken control of the first set against Nishikori. The Spaniard has just broken a second time, and leads 5-1.