If there’s one thing to remember about sports legends, it’s that you can never count them out. Ever.
And, of course, that’s true for Rafael Nadal, who’s now one match closer to what would be his third Wimbledon victory, his 23rd Grand Slam win and another check mark for his shot at a calendar slam: winning four consecutive Grand Slams in a calendar year. (He’s already won the Australian Open and French Open in 2022.)
The No. 2 seed 36-year-old Spaniard spectacularly defeated American Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4), in Wednesday’s thrilling five-set quarterfinal match on Centre Court. Nadal advanced and will face Nick Kyrgios on Friday in his 38th major semifinal appearance and eighth at Wimbledon.
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But it was certainly no easy feat to get past Fritz. In a four-hour and 20-minute match, Nadal clearly struggled — with his own performance and physical limitations, leading to waves of momentum for and against him, as well as with Fritz’s aggressive serve.
Fritz won the first and third sets, and it looked like he was ready to eliminate Nadal in the fourth. But the 22-time Grand Slam champ fought back hard — he won the fourth set, 7-5 — forcing a fifth set, which ultimately ended in a tiebreaker.
In a first-to-10 situation, Nadal opened the final tiebreak on fire, jumping out to a 5-0 as if he was beyond ready for the match to finally be over. Fritz powered through to cut Nadal’s tiebreak lead to 5-3, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Nadal stormed out again and ultimately won the tiebreak, 10-4, and the match. With Nadal serving, here’s his tiebreak- and match-winning point over Fritz, whose performance surely must also be commended.
The relief of winning after a four-plus-hour match is unimaginable.
Fritz deserves a ton of credit here for nearly knocking out a living legend, and the fans at Wimbledon showered him with praise as he left Centre Court.
Along with Nadal — who has Wimbledon wins in 2008 and 2010 on his extensive resume — and Kyrgios, top seed Novak Djokovic and No. 9 seed Cameron Norrie will play in the semifinals for a shot at Sunday’s men’s Wimbledon final.
But make no mistake: Nadal and Fritz’s quarterfinal matchup was epic.
However, “it was not an easy match at all,” as Nadal explained afterward, adding, “For a lot of moments, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I will not be able to finish the match.'” But he credited the enthusiastic atmosphere for helping him get through it.
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