Nadal wins after choking on banana

Paris: Rafael Nadal choked at the French Open on Saturday.

Luckily for the defending champion it was only on a piece of banana.

"I took a little bit of a banana. It slipped through the mouth sideways. I don't know what happened but it suddenly stayed stuck halfway through," a bemused Nadal said pointing to his neck following a 5-7 6-4 6-4 6-4 third round win over French hope Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Nadal was serving for the third set at 5-4, 15-all when he suddenly sprinted to the sidelines and pointed to his throat as a trainer tried to assess the problem.

The move drew loud whistles and jeers from the crowd but Nadal was not about to let a piece of fruit scupper his quest to chalk up a 56th consecutive victory on clay.

"I played one point. At 15-love, I started being a little bit frightened," said the second seed.

"But I didn't want to stop in the middle of the game. I didn't think it would look very good but I then lost the next point. I was now paying more attention to my throat than to tennis. It was an important game, so I started getting nervous."

"It's not that I couldn't breathe but I did feel a very strange sensation. I thought, I've got to stop because I don't want anything serious to happen. Never mind if I don't look good. (It was) not my fault."

Nadal, still, went on to hold serve to establish a two sets to one lead.

Buoyed by the roaring support, Mathieu tried his best to ruin Nadal's 20th birthday celebrations but in the end, he did not have the energy or will to quell the Spaniard.

After almost five hours of high drama, Nadal finally booked a fourth round showdown with former Australian world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

"This was a fabulous match," said Nadal. "I knew this was going to be extremely difficult. Of course, he was playing at home. Apart from the pressure from playing at home, there was no pressure on his side."

"I was theoretically the favourite. He was liberated in his game. He was also playing very well. But I had prepared for this and the crowd wasn't a problem at any moment. I was very focused at all times and I tried to keep the right attitude, tried to think about staying calm and think about the final victory. I think that's the important point."