Nadal made to sweat as Novak rages

IT WAS 4-4 in a hardfought second set when an unmistakeable frisson spread around the Centre Court.

News was reaching the main arena that Roger Federer was out of Wimbledon, confirming what the latest updates on the scoreboard at changeovers had suggested was likely.

Rafael Nadal promptly missed two regulation forehands and was broken. Even the man with the most unerring concentration in tennis found himself thrown by the development.

He was, though, to avoid the fate of his great rival by staging a magnificent fightback to beat Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, before a large crowd on the Centre Court.

Nadal v Federer is off, but the Nadal v Djokovic semi-final is on, tomorrow, with the former back in the last four for the first time since 2011.

This four-hour, 48-minute primetime thriller was a superb contest, especially a fifth set with thrills and spills galore. It may have been tennis’s match of the year to date, as the Spaniard frantically defended his fifth set lead after breaking for 3-2.

The highlight was a 13-minute eighth game, which saw the French Open champion fight off three break points

‘It was a very emotional match, a great level of tennis,’ said Nadal.

It is also beginning to look like Novak Djokovic is back. At the very least, the rage is.

His tantrums yesterday were rather spectacular — the chair umpire drawing most of his artillery and Kei Nishikori getting taken out in the crossfire, such was the rise Djokovic stirred in himself to win a wonderful match to reach the semi-final of a Slam for the first time in almost two years with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.

The first explosion came when he bounced his racket on the turf after blowing a 0-40 lead at 1-1 in the second set. The red mist thickened when Nishikori avoided a sanction for the same offence at 11 in the fourth, with Djokovic yelling ‘double standards’ at Ramos.

Djokovic said: ‘Sometimes it fires you up, so sometimes that’s what you need, I guess, to be more alert on the court.’

He took a high-level first set before Nishikori claimed the second after Djokovic squandered three break points at 1-1. He was broken in the next game and never got back in. Djokovic cranked up the pressure with two breaks in the third set and fought back after being broken in the first game of the fourth.