Casper Ruud shares why French Open protester left him 'scared' by chaining herself to net

Casper Ruud has admitted he was left "scared" after a protestor managed to get onto Court Philippe-Chatrier and chain herself to the net midway through his semi-final with Maric Cilic. The Norwegian reached his first-ever Grand Slam final after recovering from the incident to close out a four-set win and will face his "idol" Rafael Nadal on Sunday.

It was a bizarre men's semi-final day at Roland Garros on Friday after Alexander Zverev suffered a freak ankle injury and was taken off court in a wheelchair, retiring to Nadal. And things became more unprecedented as a 22-year-old girl managed to get onto the court and chained herself to the net during Ruud and Cilic's semi-final as part of a climate protest.

Ruud was serving at 4-1 in the third set, with the pair having split the first two, when play had to stop as security removed the girl and the players were taken off court. The 23-year-old closed out a 3-6 6-4 6-2 6-2 victory when they returned to Philippe-Chatrier to book a spot in his maiden Grand Slam final but admitted afterwards that the situation "scared" him.

"[I was] a bit scared, honestly. I didn't really know what was going on," the eighth seed said. "When it comes to this protest, it was a little bit...what should I say...nasty is maybe a good word. I didn't really know how to react to it." French activist group Derniere Renovation were quick to post to their social media accounts and website as soon as the 22-year-old named Alizee chained herself to the net wearing a t-shirt that read 'WE HAVE 1028 DAYS LEFT'.

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