Journeyman outlasts Nadal in epic fi fth-set duel
WIMBLEDON, England — When the last exhausted ball dropped behind the baseline and in front of his feet, a journeyman Luxembourger hatched an unusual acknowledgement of victory. He just stood there, and then he just stood there more. Maybe no other option seemed as reasonable.
He neither rejoiced nor preened nor fist-pumped. He did puff out a quick burst of air. "A lot of relief," he said.
On a comfortable summer Monday night that figures to fasten itself to the memory banks of those who gasped
and murmured and hollered at Court No. 1, Wimbledon had another of the matches that make it Wimbledon.
By the time Gilles Muller finished upsetting Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13, it seemed a technicality that Nadal would exit in the fourth round after his imperious late spring and early summer. Everything on an overloaded fourth-round day at the All England Lawn Tennis Club gave way to a sole set stuffed to the gills with frenzy.
It lasted 28 games, 135 minutes, 176 points, umpteen dizzying twists, four match points against Nadal, 18 aces (11 by Muller), 27 unforced errors (only eight from Nadal), merely 10 break points, one lonely service break at the close, and 34 cases from Muller of an ancient art the 34-year-old must have found in the cobwebs of some Wimbledon storage area: the serve-andvolley. Swells of applause greeted the finish, in multiple waves, a final one after Nadal plied his customary good manners to wait for Muller to pack his bag, then waved amiably to a crowd that favored him decidedly.
"Probably was not my best match," Nadal said, "but at the same time, I played against a very uncomfortable opponent."
"I had those match points before," Muller said, referring to the two in the ninth game and the two in the 20th. "I mean, the noise the crowd made every time he saved a match point was just massive. So, yeah, at that moment (when Muller just stood), I think also in my head I was thinking, 'We have to finish this now or otherwise we're going to come back tomorrow.' I knew it was going to be maybe another 10, 15 more minutes maximum.
"Yeah, just a lot of relief to finally get it done."
As secondary subplots to the 15-13, the guy with two career ATP Tour titles outlasted the guy with 73. The guy with zero Grand Slam titles outlasted the guy with 15, and the guy who squeaked into a second Grand Slam quarterfinal, and a first in nine years, outlasted the guy who has been to 31 such occasions. When it's 8:28 p.m. and the light is fading and Nadal is serving at 13-14, his unforgiving 10th straight service game trying to stay in the match, you know things have gone haywire.
Things had gone so haywire that the 15-13 threw the entire scheduling of the men's singles into imbalance. It bumped its scheduled succeeding match clear into Tuesday, when Novak Djokovic and Adrian Mannarino will play the last men's round-of-16 bout alongside the four women's quarterfinals.
The 15-13 overshadowed a whole bale of things that were hard to overshadow. That includes Venus Williams, 37, becoming the oldest quarterfinalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994. That includes the first British female quarterfinalist since Jo Durie in 1984, the Australian-born, sixth-ranked Johanna Konta, who preceded Muller-Nadal on Court No. 1 with a 2-hour, 12-minute, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 survival of Caroline Garcia. It includes Konta's next opponent, second-ranked Simona Halep, who ended Victoria Azarenka's comeback by winning 7-6 (3), 6-2 and earning a shot at her first No. 1 ranking.
It includes 2016 French Open champion and 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza, whose 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Angelique Kerber knocked Kerber from the No. 1 ranking. And it includes the Californian Coco Vandeweghe becoming a second-week Grand Slam mainstay at 25 after her 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Caroline Wozniacki. It was Vandeweghe's second final eight this Grand Slam year.
"I definitely think the more you're in those situations, the better you get at them," Vandeweghe said. "I've definitely learned in different scenarios how to manage myself, just being in there and practicing in that environment. There's no other way to simulate it besides being there. I don't know if it's necessarily a feeling of belonging, but a feeling of comfort in where you are."