Spaniard Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon after beating Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (6) on Monday.
Nadal, the tournament’s second seed, is hoping to claim a third consecutive Grand Slam title, having triumphed at the Australian and French Open earlier this season. In addition, the leader among tennis players in terms of major titles (22) covets a third career title at Wimbledon, and a first since 2010.
“Rafa” will face in the next round the American Taylor Fritz, 11e first in the series.
Earlier in the day, Nick Kyrgios shrugged off a troubled right shoulder to serve 35 aces and beat Brandon Nakashima 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), 3 -6, 6-2 at Wimbledon, where he reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 7½ years.
Unranked Kyrgios improved to 6-0 in five-set games at the All England Club and signed his 11e victory on grass of the season, a peak on the ATP circuit.
“I need a glass of wine tonight. That’s for sure,” Kyrgios told the crowd during his on-court interview, after swapping his white cap and rule-compliant shoes for red versions.
Playing in front of a nearly packed stadium, the 27-year-old Australian only used his unorthodox shots sporadically or lost his temper, earning him fines of US$14,000 in his win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round.
Facing Nakashima, Kyrgios received several visits from an athletic therapist during the changes of sides, giving him several shoulder massages. At one point, Kyrgios’ serve lost almost 25 mph in average speed. He was able to regain his velocity to conclude the duel.
After watching Nakashima tie the game by winning the fourth set and taking a 1-0 lead in the fifth, Kyrgios turned things around by winning the next five games.
“I’ve played a lot of tennis in the last month and a half. I am proud of the way I stabilized the ship, added Kyrgios. Honestly, that’s what I was thinking: I’ve never lost a match in five sets here. […] It was like, ‘I’ve been there before. I’ve done this before’”.
Kyrgios will face Chilean Cristian Garin, who erased a two-set deficit and saved two match points in the fifth set to overcome Alex de Minaur and advance to his first Grand Slam quarter-final under of a marathon game.
Garin trailed 5-3 in the first 10-point tiebreaker in the fifth set before winning six points in a row to take a 9-5 lead. He then converted his second match point to win 2-6, 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-4, 7-6(6) after four hours and 34 minutes of play.
He becomes the first Chilean to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament since Fernando Gonzales in 2009.
From Minaur, 19e seeded, had never lost a set to Garin in their previous three meetings and looked set to add to that streak when he grabbed a 3-1 tiebreaker lead at third set. The Australian then had two match points at 5-4 in the fifth set.
On the women’s side
The only Grand Slam titleholder still in contention in the women’s draw, Simona Halep extended her Wimbledon winning streak to 11 matches by beating fourth-seeded Paula Bados 6-1, 6-2.
Halep, 16e seeded, who recently hired Patrick Mouratoglou, the former coach of Serena Williams, committed just 9 unforced errors against Badosa, saved the only break point against her and needed only an hour to go to the next round.
Halep won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019. She had not returned to play at the All England Club until last week as the tournament was canceled in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, and she missed it a year ago due to a leg injury.
After Badosa’s elimination, the only top seed ranked higher than Halep is Ons Jabeur, noh 3. The combined 9 seeds from the two draws — men’s and women’s — that will be quarter-finals is the lowest total at Wimbledon since 2000.
Halep will face Amanda Anisimova (noh 20), a 20-year-old American who beat France’s Harmony, 6-2, 6-3. Anisimova knocked out French Open runner-up Coco Gauff last week; Tan knocked out 23-time Major champion Williams in the first round.
The other quarter-final of their portion of the draw will be against Kazakh Elena Rybakina, 17e seeded Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. Rybakina reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Petra Martic, while Tomljanovic reached it for the second consecutive year after defeating Alizé Cornet 4-6, 6- 4, 6-3.
Cornet ended the 37-game winning streak of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek on Saturday.
Finally, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her Australian playing partner John Peers fell 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to Croatia’s Mate Pavic and India’s Sania Mirza in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles tournament. The Ontarian was the last representative of the maple leaf in the running at the Wimbledon tournament.