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Wimbledon, England – It was at Center Court on Wednesday evening, and Rafael Nadal returned to the Wimbledon semi-finals after proving once again that his limit for pain and ability to improve under pressure is out of the ordinary. Is far from
Taylor Fritz in the courtroom thought like him what might be and felt that no defeat had ever hurt as much as he did because he felt the tears break.
“I never felt like I was crying after the defeat,” said Fritz, a 24-year-old rising American star. , 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4).
A quarterfinal trailer, it lasted 4 hours and 21 minutes and may have gone a bit further if not for the new rules at Wimbledon this year that require a first to 10 point tiebreaker to Play 6-6. Fifth set English football star David Beckham, watching Wright from the royal box, may have opted for a penalty kick.
Fritz, a thunderbolt server who can also hit his ground strokes, angered Nadal to win the BNP Paribas Open in Indiana Wells, California. Rag played with a loss of pressure in the window.
Fritz was on the cusp of a significant breakthrough on Wednesday and eventually scored as many points as Nadal (168). But for all Fritz’s strength and effort, he failed to win the points that mattered most; He was unable to win against Nadal’s stomach injury or two sets. He quickly lost command of the decisive tiebreaker, falling behind 0-5, as Nadal demanded shots and shots that made him the 22-time Grand Slam singles champion.
“Rafa did what Rafa does: he points things out,” said Paul Anacon, a Fritz trainer. “He points out what he’s achieved in a day, and he’s never made it easy for an opponent. That’s why he’s the most talented guy in tennis history so far.
Nadal, who is still looking for a Grand Slam at the age of 9, will face Australia’s Nick Kyrgios on Friday, another big server who has a very unstable personality, on Friday. For a place in the men’s singles final.
In the other semi-final on Friday, No. 1 Novak Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon defending champion, will face ninth-seeded Cameron Nouri, the last British player to remain in the singles.
The question is whether second-seeded Nadal will be healthy enough to play. Nadal said he was close to retiring from the game after suffering a lower stomach injury in the middle of the starting set. But even without full-strength service and even with his father and sister asking for a retirement from the stand, Nadal, as is often the case, found the solutions he needed to succeed even if he was better than Fritz. Doesn’t look very happy. He came for the Soto Voice press conference.
“It’s clear there’s nothing new today,” he said of the injuries. “I’ve had these feelings for a few days. Undoubtedly today was the worst day. The pain and limitations have increased significantly. And that’s it. I can win that game. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
He said he would go through another test on Thursday before deciding whether he would return to central court to face Kyrgyzstan, which he ruled in 16 rounds in 2014. In the first session the grass was crushed in the same patch. Nadal has won six of eight. Other games, including a second-round Test match at Wimbledon in 2019 in which Kyrgios deliberately hit full-cut passing shots into Nadal’s body and did not need to apologize.
“Nick is a good player at all levels but especially here on the grass.” Nadal said. “He has a great grass court season. It’s going to be a big challenge. I need to be one hundred percent to keep the chances, and that’s what I’m trying to do.
Nadal is obviously tired of talking about his body, tired of dealing with injuries that only come in his time sensitive season.
“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” Nadal said.
For the first time in his long career, Nadal won the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the season, the Australian and French Open. Rod Laver has not completed a single Grand Slam since the year he has won all four major tournaments, but Nadal has kept his bid alive with 5-year-old Laver, who watched from the royal box.
Nadal arranged this for a very slow service that, according to Fritz, gave him more trouble than delivering Nadal’s full strength. Nadal was out of court eagerly for the end of medical time with a 4-3 lead in the second set and said he had received anti-inflammatory medication and treatment from a physiotherapist.
“For all the first set and all the second and third major, the problem was not just the service but it was that if I served I would feel pain for the rest of the point and not be able to play normally,” he said. Explained “It took a while to figure it out.” On Wednesday, his average speed was 107 miles per hour for the first round and 94 miles per hour for the second round compared to 115 and 100 in the previous round. But once he regrouped, he said he no longer had long-term discomfort during the exchange and that he felt discomfort on his ground feet.
“For many moments, I thought maybe I wouldn’t be able to finish the game,” he said in a speech to the people of Center Court. “But, I don’t know, court, energy, anything else, so yes, thanks for that.”
Nadal has not always been popular at Wimbledon, where his longtime rival Roger Federer has long enjoyed the role. But the 40-year-old Federer is not playing here this year, and Nadal, returning for the first time since 2019, has heard many positive reactions as he tries to win Wimbledon for the third time.
He put pressure on Wednesday, tied the game in two sets and then took a break in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, only to lose his serve in the next game. But as the game dragged on for four hours, he regained control and ended the victory with a classic four-handed winner from inside the baseline, complete with a bolo whip end behind his left ear.
It was an amazing Wimbledon. Before it could begin, the All England club banned Russian and Belarus players due to the Ukrainian attack. The three leading players – Matthew Beretini, Marin Celic and Roberto Batista Agot – returned after a coroner’s contract.
But Nadal and Djokovic are still at the forefront of the controversy, as is Simona Halep, the former No. 1 who won Wimbledon in 2019 and is back in shape with the help of her new coach, Patrick Muratoglu. Halep will face Kazakhstan’s Elena Rebakina in the semifinals on Thursday. The third-ranked captain from Tunisia, Ounce Jabier, will play 103rd German Tatajana Maria, which was the biggest surprise of the women’s tournament.
Last year, Fritz came close to surprising Djokovic before losing five sets in the third round of the Australian Open, in a game that was strange but true, Djokovic suffered a stomach injury. The scenario against Nadal must have been painfully recognizable, and he said his biggest regret was that Nadal didn’t put too much pressure that three times Nadal served to stay in the game.
“Ultimately, he was really, really, really good,” Fritz said. “Some parts of the game made me feel like maybe I just need to come up with more, do more. I left a lot to him and handed him over.
