Nadal is happy about the way he survived
LONDON: Rafael Nadal is familiar with the adrenaline rush that surges through his body after winning a five-set thriller in four hours and 48 minutes on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
After all, those were broad details of the 2008 final when the Spaniard ended Roger Federer’s five-year Wimbledon reign and hoisted the Challenge Cup for the first time.
Ten years on Nadal again celebrated another All England Club success with the same broad match details.
However on Wednesday nobody rolled out the green carpet and handed over the trophy as the Spaniard’s 7-5 6-7(7) 4-6 6-4 6-4 victory over Juan Martin del Potro had merely secured him a semifinal with Novak Djokovic.
Nadal described the showdown as a combination of “suffering” and “enjoyment” but he was relieved he came back from two-sets-to-one down to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2011.
“Of course I was worried when I lost the second set,” said Nadal, who had reached the quarter-finals without dropping a set and might have continued that run had he not squandered four set points, including one with a double fault, in the tiebreak.
“That double fault was a big mistake.”
Such mistakes were kept to a minimum in a contest with 144 winners and 36 aces. Del Potro conjured 77 of those winners and blasted 33 aces and still came off second best.
“I am very happy the way that I survived a lot of important points in that fifth set,” Nadal said.
“I think I did a lot of things well. I went to the net. In general terms it was a positive match. Only negative thing is I played almost five hours.”
Being kept on court for so long before a 52nd meeting with Djokovic is not exactly the kind of preparation the 17-times Grand Slam champion would have wanted.
But having won 31 of his 32 matches since injury cut short his Australian Open in January, the Spaniard is riding high on confidence and will be eager to complete the French Open-Wimbledon double for the third time.