An injured Rafa Nadal showed heroic mental strength to defeat American 11th seed Taylor Fritz in a final set tiebreak during a thrilling Wimbledon quarter-final to keep his calendar year Grand Slam quest alive.
Struggling with a stomach injury, Nadal almost seemed to quit mid-game, but found the will to beat Fritz 3-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 7-6 (10-4) in four hours and 20 minutes to set to a semi-final showdown against Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios.
“The body is generally fine. Of course something is not right in the abdominal area,” Nadal told Center Court.
“I had to find a way to serve a little differently. A lot of times I thought I might not be able to finish the match. But I don’t know, the court, the energy is something else, so thank you for that.”
But there was no guarantee from the 36-year-old that he would be present at Center Court to keep his historic bid going.
“I don’t know,” Nadal said when asked about his chances of playing unseeded 27-year-old Kyrgios. “Frankly, I can’t give you a straight answer because if I give you a straight answer and something else happens tomorrow, then I’m a liar.”
Nadal said he was concerned about the injury and will undergo more scans on Thursday before making a decision to continue on the grass track.
The All England Club, where the Spaniard has won two of his 22 majors, was the least rewarding spot for Nadal, but he arrived this year after winning the Australian Open and French Open titles back to back for the first time in his career. won.
A third Wimbledon title and first since 2010 on the manicured lawns and a US Open victory over Flushing Meadows would put the Mallorcan on the calendar – a feat last achieved in 1969 by Australian great Rod Laver .
Fritz, 12 years younger than 36-year-old Nadal, dealt the Spaniard a punch in the final of the ATP 1000 event in Indian Wells earlier this year, ending his 20-match winning run in the season. But Nadal played that game with a stress fracture in his rib that left him out a month later.
Nadal arrived for the match after winning all seven quarter-finals he played at Wimbledon and pushing himself against Fritz from the start, wielding his forehand like a sword to break the serve in the opening game.
Fritz looked a little lethargic against the southpaw’s heavy groundstrokes, but grew in the match as time went on and he took advantage of his fourth breakpoint opportunity in the sixth game to get the set back on service.
A pair of costly mistakes by Nadal gave Fritz another break and the American shot through the opening set to win five consecutive games, trailing 1-3, 0-30.
Nadal took another early lead in the second set and broke Fritz’s serve when the American slipped and made two forehand errors.
But the Spaniard started to struggle physically – his head bowed to the pitch and his hands on his knees – and he gave up the advantage with two double faults in the fifth game.
Nadal soon left the field for medical time out for a stomach problem, with his father fervently urging him to end his misery.
But the two-time former Wimbledon champion did not listen to the requests and returned to the packed showcourt to huge applause, then broke Fritz in the 12th game to bring the match to one set apiece.
Pensive during the switchovers and still struggling on the field during the serve, Nadal was broken twice as the American comfortably took in the third set.
But he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. Nadal traded two breaks before claiming the American’s serve for a third time to force a decisive fifth set.
With the crowd firmly behind him, Nadal got the break in the seventh game, staring at his player box, but Fritz immediately snapped back to force an appropriate 10-point decisive tiebreak.
The Spaniard took a 5-0 lead in the tiebreak, then won a 25-shot rally to loud applause and converted his second match point with a stinging forehand winner for a memorable victory.
“Honestly, I really enjoy playing games like this in front of all of you,” Nadal said, addressing the crowd. “It was a tough afternoon against a great player. From my personal side it was not an easy game at all. So just really happy to be in that semi-final.”
Composite Kyrgios overcomes Garin
Nick Kyrgios reached the first Grand Slam semi-final of his checkered career with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Chilean Cristian Garin, kicking off a ravishing showdown with Nadal.
The unseeded player lost the first nine points at Court One, but ended up having too much firepower for Garin, who had hoped to become the first Wimbledon semi-finalist in Chile.
By surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Lleyton Hewitt at the 2005 US Open.
On the eve of the match, Kyrgios was summoned to appear in a court in Canberra next month on an alleged assault charge, hardly an ideal preparation for one of his biggest matches. But he managed to set aside any distraction off the pitch in a relatively low-volume screen, occasionally sprinkled with the instinctive shot-making that makes him such a draw.
As with his five-set win over American Brandon Nakashima in the previous round, Kyrgios kept his volatile temper in check, though he regularly criticized his sizable entourage as the match progressed and asked for more support.
Once again, his serve was the foundation of his game, getting him out of trouble when Garin threatened to drag himself back in a game that drifted away from him after his quick start.
Kyrgios saved eight of the nine breakpoints he got, including two at 4-4 in the first set.
Garin, who defeated Kyrgios’ compatriot Alex De Minaur in the previous round from two sets behind, fought hard to extend the third set to a tiebreak, leading 5-3 before Kyrgios struck back to win the final four points.
One of tennis’s great enigmas will now face Nadal in the semi-final, a clash he predicted would be “probably the most watched match of all time”.
World No. 40 Kyrgios, the lowest-ranked semi-finalist at Wimbledon since Marat Safin (75) and Rainer Schuettler (94) in 2008, will start as an underdog but will relish the opportunity.
“I never thought I would be in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. I thought that ship had sailed – that I might have wasted that window in my career.
“I had lost the love, lost the fire, lost the spark. Then some things in my life changed. I just rediscovered that I have a lot of people who want me to play, what I play for. I play still have a lot in the tank .”
Halep races to semi-finals
Simona Halep remembers her 2019 Wimbledon final triumph as the perfect match, but the message the Romanian sent out after riding to the semi-finals was that she was back to her best and loved it.
The 16th seed overtook American Amanda Anisimova 6-2 6-4 in a Center Court clash that took just over an hour to set up a meeting in the final four with Russian-born 17th-seeded Kazakh Elena Rybakina.
“I’ve been playing the best tennis since I won here. I’m building that confidence back and it’s good now,” said the former world number one, who sidelined Serena Williams in that 2019 final before leaving the field.
The Romanian, who missed last year’s tournament through injury and is now the only former champion left in the draw, has yet to drop a set in five matches that took less than six hours of her time.
She said it was just a joy to be back in a semifinal and at one of her favorite tournaments.
Last year she had considered retiring because of her injuries.
“I’m different as a person. I really believe that. I’m stronger with my emotions. I can manage emotions much better. I have experience,” she said.
Halep will need that against a heavyweight opponent who has served 44 aces so far, but she said she was up for the challenge.
Meanwhile, Rybakina recovered from a shaky start, overpowering Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6 6-2 6-3 to become the first Kazakhstani player to reach the last four of a Grand Slam.
Rybakina, the 17th seed, struggled in the first set but then started to find her serving range, at one point taking seven games in a row to secure the second set and give her control of the third.
The 23-year-old, who would not have been allowed to play at Wimbledon this year had she not moved from Russia four years ago, finished the match with an ace – her 15th of the match.