A hurting Rafa Nadal exhibited heroic mental strength to edge American 11th seed Taylor Fritz in a final set tiebreaker during a captivating Wimbledon quarter-final on Wednesday to keep alive his quest for a calendar year Grand Slam.
Struggling with an abdominal injury, Nadal appeared close to retiring mid-match but found the will to beat Fritz 3-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 7-6 (10-4) in four hours and 20 minutes to set up a semi-final showdown against Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios.
During the second set Nadal’s father and sister fervently urged him from the player’s box at Centre Court to put an end to his misery, but the two-time former Wimbledon champion paid no heed to the requests.
“They told me I need to retire from the match,” said Nadal, adding that he himself considered giving up quite a few times. “Well, I tried. For me it was tough to retire in the middle of the match.
“I did it a couple of times in my tennis career. It’s something that I hate to do. So I just keep trying.” The All England Club, where the Spaniard has won two of his 22 majors, has been the least rewarding place for Nadal but he arrived this year having won the Australian and French Open titles back-to-back for the first time in his career.
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A third Wimbledon title and first since 2010 on the manicured lawns and a U.S. Open triumph at Flushing Meadows would see the Mallorcan claim the calendar slam — a feat last achieved in 1969 by Australian great Rod Laver.
Fritz, 12 years younger than the 36-year-old Nadal, dealt a blow to the Spaniard earlier this year in the final of the ATP 1000 event in Indian Wells, putting an end to his 20-match winning run in the season.
But Nadal played that match with a stress fracture in his rib — which later ruled him out of competition for a month.