Muller ousts Nadal in 5-set marathon

LONDON — Rafael Nadal kept getting pushed to the brink of defeat. He kept resisting.

After repeatedly digging himself out of difficult situations, Nadal finally succumbed, broken in the last game of a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 loss to 16thseeded Gilles Muller on Monday.

“I played with the right determination, right passion, right attitude,” Nadal said, “to win the match.”

But he could not pull through, extending his drought without a quarterfinal berth at the All England Club to six years.

“Just tried to hang in there,” Muller said. “Somehow in the end, I made it.”

Nadal won two of his 15 Grand Slam championships at Wimbledon and played in the final three other times, most recently in 2011. But since then, Nadal’s exits have come in the first round (2013), second round (2012, 2015) or fourth round (2014, 2017).

All of those losses, except Monday’s, came against men ranked 100th or worse. The 34-year-old Muller is not exactly a giant killer: He had lost 22 consecutive matches against players in the top five, and he’d only reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal once before, at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Now Muller will face Marin Cilic in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Other men’s quarterfinals: defending champion Andy Murray, who beat Benoit Paire 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 Monday, against Sam Querrey; Roger Federer, who beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, against Milos Raonic; and Tomas Berdych against Novak Djokovic or Adrian Mannarino. The Djokovic-Mannarino match was postponed until Tuesday after Nadal and Muller played on and on, past 8 p.m.

In the women’s draw, five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams won, and top-ranked Angelique Kerber lost. Williams, who last won the title in 2008, advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-2.

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.