Everyone’s a loser — beat Nadal at your peril

london — It’s as traditional at Wimbledon as the all-white playing gear rule and just as rigid — beat Rafael Nadal, lose the next round.

That’s the dilemma facing Gilles Muller who will go into his maiden quarterfinal at the All England Club hoping to avoid the fate of the last four men to have shocked Nadal at the tournament.

Lukas Rosol in 2012, Steve Darcis in 2013, Nick Kyrgios in the following year and Dustin Brown two years ago all defied the odds to knock out the great Spaniard.

However, they were all then unceremoniously dumped out in the next round.

“I’m pretty confident that I will be in good shape for Wednesday,” said 34-year-old Muller after his epic 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 win over 2008 and 2010 champion Nadal on Monday.

The likes of Rosol, Darcis, Kyrgios and Brown were all similarly confident after their moments of triumph only to exit with barely a whimper one round later.

Rosol was ranked 100 when he made his Wimbledon debut five years ago. The Czech had lost in the first round of qualifying in all of the previous five years.

However, in a stunning display of big-hitting and with a barelyconcealed desire to get under the skin of Nadal, Rosol claimed a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 second round win.

“It’s like a miracle,” he said after his Centre Court stunner. The miracle was short-lived. In the third round, he was shunted out to Court 12 where he went down tamely to experienced German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-3, 7-6. —