Andy Murray was fighting to keep his French Open hopes alive when his semi-final against Novak Djokovic was suspended with a storm approaching.
The Briton trailed 3-6 3-6 7-5 3-3 when play was brought to a halt at 20:30 local time in Paris.
Djokovic, the world number one, had dominated the first two sets only for Murray to battle back reports BBC.
The match will resume at 12:00 BST on Saturday, with the winner facing Stan Wawrinka in Sunday’s final.
Swiss eighth seed Wawrinka’s earlier win over Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had lasted nearly four hours, meaning the second semi-final did not get under way until almost 17:30 local time, albeit with the temperature still at 33C.
Thunderstorms had been forecast to hit Roland Garros at some stage and, with little prospect of Murray and Djokovic finishing, officials opted to stop with the fourth set tied at 3-3.
That could be viewed as a triumph in itself for Murray, bearing in mind the Scot’s predicament an hour earlier.