After delighting the crowds during his straights sets quarter-final victory over Tomas Berdych, Roger Federer had a kind message for injured rival Rafael Nadal.
Scans have revealed the injury that forced Nadal out of the Australian Open, during his quarter-final against Marin Cilic, is a low-grade hip muscle strain.
Luckily for the Spaniard, he'll only miss about a month of action, a short spell relative to other recent injury breaks he's endured.
But still, it's a dagger to the heart of the passionate 31-year-old, who'd only just returned from a knee injury at the back end of the 2017 season.
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Rafael Nadal can't catch a break. Pic: Getty More
And the Swiss maestro certainly understands his good friend's pain, making an effort to get in touch with him despite preparing for his huge showdown with Berdych.
"I wrote Rafa late last night before I went to bed, it was the last thing I did, I was like 'ok I gotta write Raf and see how he's doing,'" Federer said after his victory.
"I hope he was gonna be ok with the scan today and I'm happy that the news was not terrible. But it was not nice to see, a fellow friend and rival go out, so I wish him well."
Federer had plenty of empathy for Nadal. Pic: Getty More
After booking his 14th Australian Open semi-final appearance, the absence of Nadal for the tournament's big matches certainly clears a path to victory for Federer, who's chasing his 20th grand slam crown.
But that definitely wasn't the 36-year-old's focus as he saw his rival go down against Cilic, saying it was hard to watch Nadal's injury play out.
"We wish him well, it's hard to watch, someone go out in five sets and not be able to finish," Federer said.
"At least if someone finishes and he loses, all credit to the other guy, still I think Marin deserves an amazing amount of credit, because he hung around and he fought really, really hard."
Meanwhile, Federer butted heads with the chair umpire during a feisty opening set against Berdych, but regrouped to claim the 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 6-4 victory in two hours and 14 minutes.
Down 3-5, Federer challenged a Berdych serve but was unable to survey the evidence due to a faulty hawk-eye video display.
Advised that the call had gone against him and he had lost his last remaining challenge, Federer admonished chair umpire Fergus Murphy in a rare display of annoyance from the ice-cool veteran.
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