French Open contender David Goffin forced to retire from tournament after suffering freak on-court injury

Goffin was winning his third-round match when he suffered a desperately unlucky injury

Goffin suffered a heavy fall while leading his third round match (Getty)

French Open tenth seed David Goffin, who has been in superb form and was considered an outside bet to win the tournament, has been forced to retire from the Slam after suffering a heavy fall during his third-round match against Horacio Zeballos.

The Belgian has enjoyed a fantastic clay-court season, reaching the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters and the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open, before losing to eventual winner Rafael Nadal on each ocassion.

He is ranked 12th in the world and reached the quarter-final stage of Roland Garros last season, and had been widely tipped to better that performance this year.

However, his tournament was brought to a premature end when he suffered a heavy fall during his third-round match and was forced into an early retirement.

Goffin was leading Zeballos 5-4 in the first set when the Argentine pushed him to the very back of the court, well behind the baseline, with a deep groundstroke.

Goffin turned on a sixpence and sprinted to return the ball, playing a fine lob over Zeballos. However his follow-through saw him slip over a sheet of tarpaulin on the very edge of the court, hurting his ankle in the process.

Medical staff were quick to attend Goffin and inspect his ankle, but a few minutes later the chair umpire announced that he had been forced to retire from the match.

The in-form Belgian was a contender in Paris (Getty)

Zeballos received a round of applause for packing Goffin’s bag for him and helping him from the court — much like Juan Martin del Potro helped the unfortunate Nicolás Almagro on Thursday.

Zeballos, who had never before reached the fourth round of the French Open, will now play the winner of the match between America’s Steve Johnson and sixth seed Dominic Thiem.