French Open: 'Oh, wow!' - Crucial moment racquet slips out of Alexander Zverev's hand against Rafael Nadal

There was a surprising moment at a key stage in the opening set of Alexander Zverev's French Open semi-final with Rafael Nadal as his racquet slipped out of his grasp. The tension was palpable on Court Philippe-Chatrier as the two players battled it out under the roof on Friday afternoon in the huge last-four clash at Roland-Garros.

Ad/> The third seed was serving under enormous pressure from the 13-time champion at deuce with a 4-3 lead and a break to his name in the opening set when the incident occurred. /> Roland-GarrosWatch incredible Nadal winner that 'seemed impossible' against Zverev34 MINUTES AGO Zverev fired a huge serve down the T and followed it into the net as Nadal did well just to get it back in the German's half of the court.

What would normally follow would be a pretty routine forehand winner from Zverev, who cruised to the net and prepared to unleash another ferocious groundstroke to finish the point efficiently. However, he was not wearing a sweatband and the racquet suddenly slipped from his grasp at a crucial moment and fell to the ground as the ball skewed off to the side in a bizarre miss.

It was hugely unfortunate for Zverev, having crafted the point and got himself into a strong position with Nadal left pretty stranded at the back of the court, but he would end up gifting the Spaniard a break point instead. Nadal went on to win the set in a dramatic tie-break, but it could have all been so different had the racquet not slipped out of Zverev's hand.