Rafael Nadal set the ball rolling early. In the press conference after his win in the fourth round, the Spaniard was asked what he thought about his loss to Taylor Fritz at Indian Wells. His answer, “What I learned about the match against Fritz was zero because I had a stress fracture on my rib… and the pain was terrible.” It showed he would be out set the record straight.
As things turned out, another injury had a huge role to play in the Wimbledon quarterfinal on Wednesday that had a strange vibe to it. However, at the end of the match which was a five-set rollercoaster, we were once again saluting the sheer heart that drives Nadal. Knee, foot, abdomen–the list of injuries seems endless but through it all, he endures; he makes us root for him and he shows us the value of fighting even when the chips seem irreversibly down. The depth of Nadal’s resilience is almost unfathomable and if you needed a reminder of that, the 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) win was ample evidence.
Now, Fritz is a good player but the question at the start of the match was whether he would be able to handle a charged up Rafa? And for the first 14 minutes of the match, it looked like he couldn’t. The American playing his first match on Centre Court and his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, was broken in the first game and Nadal’s shots were eliciting ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd. Fritz slowly found his composure and then in the sixth game of the match, he drew level. Some heavy hitting earned the American three breakpoints but Nadal made it deuce before the 24-year-old closed it out. And then once again, the depth of Fritz’s returns earned him two breakpoints and he needed just one as Nadal committed a double fault. Fritz had not lost a set in the tournament and he was just starting to show why. An ace helped Fritz win the first set 6-3. He had won five games in a row and Nadal was left looking a little shell-shocked. That can sometimes be a mere invitation for the Spaniard to take things up a gear.