Rafael Nadal struggled through adversity on several occasions during Wednesday’s quarter-final match at Wimbledon. Despite trailing a set at two different times, Nadal managed to defeat 11th seed Taylor Fritz 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6.
Nadal managed to get past Fritz 10-4 in the tiebreak to advance to the Wimbledon semi-finals, despite suffering an apparent abdominal injury throughout the match. With this win, Nadal qualified for the 38th major semi-final and his eighth in the major semi-finals at Wimbledon.
In 2022, Nadal won 19 consecutive major matches.
Wednesday’s win lifted Nadal’s five-game record to 26-13. The Spanish star also has a 7-4 mark in five-set matches at Wimbledon over the course of his career.
The 36-year-old star lost the first and third sets, but was able to come back and win the following sets. Nadal also got everything he could handle from Fritz in the decisive fifth set, as he had to win in the tiebreak.
Fritz scored a 5-4 advantage in the fifth set before Nadal equalized with a superb shot. Fritz bounced back to lead 6-5, but Nadal won four of the next five points in the match that followed to tie the match 6-6 – and he showed some big emotion in doing so.
Nadal is chasing his third Wimbledon title (and first since 2010), but Nick Kyrgios stands in his way in the semi-finals on Friday.
