French Open star retires after suffering nasty fall to set up all-British contest

British No. 2 Jacob Fearnley is through to the third round of the French Open on his debut - but he won't have wanted to get the win this way. Home favourite Ugo Humbert was forced to retire in the middle of the second set on Thursday night when he took a tumble in the middle of a game and briefly attempted to play on before realising it was useless.

The No. 22 seed has had a horror clay season - he and spent weeks playing with a splint on his hand, struggling to win matches. Now the splint is off and the pain is finally gone, he's suffered a nasty injury and his Roland Garros campaign is over. But it does mean Fearnley meets in an all-British clash.

After losing the first set 6-3 to Fearnley, the Frenchman recovered and was first to break in set two. But he was taken into a tight game and was serving at deuce at 4-3 when he suddenly fell at the baseline in the middle of a rally and went down.

The chair umpire rushed over and Fearnley soon came to help but Humbert looked to be in agony and limped over to his bench to receive a mid-game medical time-out around his left calf and ankle.

After a lengthy delay, the 26-year-old attempted to play on but he could barely move and was immediately broken. Humbert played one more point on the Scot's serve then threw in the towel, shaking his head and walking towards the net with Fearnley now leading 6-3 4-4.

"Fires down an ace and Ugo Humbert says, 'That is it for me'," Alastair Eykyn said on TNT Sports.

"He can't move properly, it's a crushing disappointment for the Frenchman and all of his countrymen gathered inside Court Simonne-Mathieu. Victory for Jacob Fearnley as Humbert retires.

"Not the way he would've wanted it, I'm quite sure, Jacob Fearnley, but he's been very good value for his victory. He's fought hard, it was a very tight battle for so long."

Co-commentator Anna Smith replied: "He played a lot of good tennis and Humbert was really coming to life in that second set. It's really tough to take.

"Took that heavy fall, you did wonder what was going to come out the other side of that medical time-out and unfortunately for the French crowd here, you could just tell he wasn't right and I think it's the smart play.

"You don't want to do any more damage, it's a long season and as much as it's going to be painful for him, you've got to look a little bit at the long term."

Fearnley is now through to the third round to face countryman Norrie, who backed up against 11th seed by beating lucky loser Federico Gomez in straight sets on Thursday.

It's another round three appearance at a Major for Fearnley this year. The world No. 55 also made it this far in Melbourne at the start of the year, beating Nick Kyrgios and Arthur Cazaux before losing to No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.

Humbert's retirement wasn't a total killer for the French crowd on Court Simonne-Mathieu. After an early end to his match, French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut had their doubles match against Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori moved onto the same stage.