World No. 1 Rafael Nadal passed his toughest test yet at The Championships as he battled past Juan Martin del Potro 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 on Monday evening to reach the quarter-finals at the All England Club.
In a drama-filled contest that finished shortly after 9:00pm local time, both Nadal and del Potro survived injury scares - del Potro to his hip, Nadal to his foot - to produce a high quality contest. 105 winners were struck to just 37 errors from both before Nadal prevailed in eight minutes shy of four hours.
“I am happy today I am through. I thought that I’m never gonna win this match when [the foot injury] happened at 6-5,” said Nadal. “I am very happy to be through, winning against one of the best players of the world. I think was a fantastic match. Was a very good level of tennis tonight.”
The defending champion won his 18th successive match at Wimbledon. He won the title for the first time in 2008 with victory over Roger Federer and was forced to miss the 2009 edition through injury before returning victorious (d. Berdych) last year. He finished runner-up at the grass-court major in 2006 and 2007, losing out to Federer on both occasions.
The Spaniard is bidding to win the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double for the third time, having beaten Federer in the final of the clay-court Grand Slam championship three weeks ago. He would join Bjorn Borg as the only two players in the Open Era to do so, should he succeed.
Up next for the Mallorcan left-hander is tenth seed Mardy Fish, who prevented a repeat of last year’s final as he defeated 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4. The American hit 42 winners to just 12 unforced errors and converted two of his seven break point opportunities to overcome Berdych in two hours and 22 minutes. Fish has been dominant on serve throughout The Championships, winning 64 of his 65 games to reach the last eight.
“He’s playing fantastic,” Nadal said of Fish. “I saw him a little bit against Robin Haase. He's playing at a very, very high level. He’s a very dangerous player, so I will try my best to be very competitive on Wednesday. I need be at my hundred percent. If not, it’s gonna be impossible against him. So I have to recover.”
The 29-year-old Fish is into a Grand Slam quarter-final for the third time after reaching the last eight at the 2007 Australian Open (l. to Roddick) and the 2008 US Open (l. to Nadal). The No. 1 American has reached four ATP World Tour grass-court finals, winning one of his five career titles at Newport (d. O. Rochus) last year.
“I've had good success on grass in my career, but just never here,” said Fish. “This is obviously a huge tournament for me. Suits my game probably better than any other tournament for me Grand Slam wise. So I felt like maybe it's one of those ones that I really wanted to do well at. To be in the quarterfinals feels great. I'll have another tough one, for sure.
Fish will look to overturn a 0-5 deficit against Nadal, including a straight-sets loss to the Spaniard in the first round at Wimbledon four years ago.
“You can't go out there thinking you can't win,” said Fish. “But I've never been past this spot in a Grand Slam. Past this spot is where I want to be, where you set your goals for. So game-plan-wise we'll come up with something. A lot of it's mental. So half the battle is walking out there believing you can win, and I'll definitely do that.”
from www.atptourworld.com
couldnt saw the match was very nervous while rafa was playing! he was groaning in pain during the match ! so couldnt post also !!!! but here comes semifinal post up next!!!
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