NADAL KNOCKED OUT
FINISHED AT WIMBLEDON,
Rafael Nadal was beaten in the fourth round at Wimbledon on Monday, losing to Gilles Muller, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13, in a match that lasted four hours and 48 minutes.
The two-time champion at the All England Club saved two match points in the 10th game of the fifth set, and two more in the 20th game.
Nadal dropped the opening set despite not making even one unforced error.
Before Monday, the last set lost by Nadal at a major was the fifth in the Australian Open final in January against Roger Federer.
Federer and Andy Murray, much to the delight of the Centre Court crowd, also reached the quarter-finals.
Federer, a seven-time champion at the All England Club and one of the fan favourites, advanced to the quarters for the 15th time by beating Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
Murray is also adored at the grass-court major.
He is a two-time champion, but maybe more important, he is British and in 2013 became the first homegrown player to win the men’s title in 77 years.
On Monday, he beat Benoit Paire, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4.
“I’ve done a good job so far here,” said Murray, the defending tournament champion. “Today was by far the best I hit the ball, the cleanest I hit the ball. I was happy about that.”
The first man to reach the quarter-finals was Marin Cilic. The seventh-seeded Croat beat Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Cilic, who won the U.S. Open in 2014, will be playing the quarter-finals at the All England Club for the fourth straight year.
Federer will next face Canadian Milos Raonic. Murray will play Sam Querrey on Wednesday. The 24th-seeded American defeated Kevin Anderson, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (11), 6-3.
In women’s play, five-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams won, and top-ranked Angelique Kerber lost.
Williams, who last won the title at the All England Club in 2008, advanced to the quarter-finals by beating 19-year-old Ana Konjuh, 6-3, 6-2. She is playing at the grasscourt major for the 20th time. Her Wimbledon debut came a few months before Konjuh was born.
Kerber, who reached the Wimbledon final last year but lost to Serena Williams, was beaten by Garbine Muguruza on No. 2 Court, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. With the loss by Kerber, either Simona Halep or Karolina Pliskova will take over as the topranked player after the tourney. Halep also advanced Monday, while Pliskova lost in the second round.
Williams will next face French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals. The 20-yearold Latvian, who won her first tourlevel title at Roland Garros last month, beat fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 7-6 (6), on Court 12.
Ostapenko led Svitolina 5-3 in the second set, but was broken and forced into a tiebreaker. She won by converting her eighth match point.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Magdalena Rybarikova, Coco Vandeweghe and Johanna Konta also advanced to the quarter-finals.