Alexander Zverev blamed the weather for his loss to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final of the French Open on Wednesday.
The third seed won the first set but then lost the following three sets to Djokovic, who has now won nine of their 14 meetings on tour.
The Serbian will now go on to face Jannik Sinner in the semi-final as the sixth seed aims to become the first player to 25 Grand Slam wins.
After coming out strong winning the first set 6-4, Zverev had no answer for the player 10 years his senior as he won the next three sets 3-6 2-6 4-6.
Alexander Zverev lost to Novak Djokovic
PADjokovic did a great job of neutralising Zverev’s big serve, and the German had no other way to hurt the Serbian.
Despite both players being subject to the same conditions, Zverev insisted the sudden cold snap hurt him more than his opponent.
"It was very, very cold," he said. "So my serve speed was not very high.
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"Again, as I said, I think when the sun completely went down, it was difficult for me to get through the court a little bit. It was difficult for me to find, you know, kind of ways to be dominant in the rally, because my serve was neutralised very well by him.
"Then also, I felt like my groundstrokes, every time I tried to be aggressive, I was not really doing much. It was difficult for me to find a solution, I think, in the cold conditions."
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Novak Djokovic will now face Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals
ReutersDjokovic had been seen as only having an outside chance to win his 25th Grand Slam, however, the Serbian has only dropped one set en route to the semi-finals.
Zverev fired a warning to Sinner ahead of his final-four match with the Serbian.
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He said: "I think at the moment he's a bit underrated, to be honest.
"I think like a lot of people count him out already, but this year he's had wins over Carlos [Alcaraz] at the Australian Open, he has had a win over me at the French Open. Forget the age. I think for any player, those are pretty good results.
Jannik Sinner will aim to stop Novak Djokovic winning his 25th Grand Slam
US Open"Of course you will have to ask him how he feels physically and how he will recover and if he'll be at 100 per cent for the next match, because I do think it was quite a physical match today for both of us.
"But, you know, he's still beating the best of the best, so I think everybody needs to respect that."
Sinner and Djokovic will face off for a place in the French Open final tomorrow, June 6.
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