As Rafael Nadal advanced through the bottom half of the Wimbledon draw, inching ever further in his quest for a calendar-year grand slam, all eyes were on his the foot he had treated to quell nerve pain last month.
It turned out the collective gaze should have been aimed higher. Mainly to the abdominal injury that at one stage looked likely to bring a premature end to an absorbing, dramatic tussle against Taylor Fritz, and which is now a major source of concern with a semi-final against Nick Kyrgios looming. But also to the extraordinary heart of a champion who, at the age of 36, continues to defy medical and sporting logic and simply does not know when he is beaten.
For beaten Nadal was, in all but name. In a season of miracles that began with victory at the Australian Open after a six-month injury layoff, and continued with a 14th French Open title won with a foot numbed by pain-killing injections, this was another.
At two sets to one down against Fritz, the big-serving American who defeated him three months ago in the final of the Indian Wells Masters, in another match full of medical drama, the Spaniard looked down and out. Unable to serve properly and struggling to hit a backhand or even move freely to his right, Nadal was, as he admitted afterwards, close to pulling out of a grand slam match for only the fourth time in his career.
He somehow recovered to pull off a 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4) victory in four hours and 21 minutes, although whether he will be fit to face Kyrgios on Friday remains to be seen.
“Tomorrow I am going to have some more tests, but [it is] difficult to know,” said Nadal. “Today is nothing new. I had these feelings for a couple of days. But without a doubt, today was the worst day. Have been an important increase of pain and limitation. I managed to win that match – let’s see what’s going on tomorrow.”
For Fritz, seeded 11th and playing in his first grand slam quarter-final, the defeat was not only crushing but also uncomfortably familiar. At last year’s Australian Open, he was undone by another of the game’s all-time greats in remarkably similar circumstances, losing out to Novak Djokovic over five sets as the Serb wrestled with an abdominal injury.
Fritz looked close to tears as he left the court, and later reflected ruefully on his failure to seize the initiative at the key moments.
“Certain parts of the match I felt like maybe I kind of just needed to come up with more, do more,” said Fritz. “I left a lot up to him, and he delivered. It was a great match. Honestly, probably hurts more than any loss I’ve ever had.
“After the match was over, I was sitting there and I felt like crying… I’ve never felt like that ever after a loss.”
Having raced out of the blocks only to stall as Fritz recovered from an early break to take the first set, Nadal was pegged back from a similar position in the second. But as he served at 3-3, it became clear something was wrong. He moved uncomfortably to a drop shot. He missed a first serve and briefly bent forward, in evident discomfort. At the change of ends, he called for the trainer.
As Nadal left the court to receive medical attention, the obvious fear was that pain had returned to the chronically injured foot on which he had radio frequency ablation treatment last month. Instead, the problem turned out to be the lower abdominal area on which he wore strapping in the previous round against Botic van de Zandschulp, an issue that he had declined to discuss.
“They can’t do much,” said Nadal. “The doctor came and gave me some anti-inflammatories, analgesics, I don’t know. The physio just tried to relax a little bit the muscle there, but it’s difficult, no? Nothing can be fixed when you have a thing like this.”
Up in the players’ box, Nadal’s pregnant wife Maria Fancisca and sister María Isabel looked on anxiously. His father, Sebastian, gestured agitatedly, urging him not to continue.
“They told me that I need to retire the match,” said Nadal. “For me, it was tough to retire in the middle of the match. Not easy, even if I had that idea for such a long time. I did it a couple of times in my tennis career. It’s something that I hate to do. So I just kept trying.”
For much of the next set and a half, Nadal was reduced to bowling in his serve at speeds barely in excess of 80mph. Unable to rotate properly on his double-fisted backhand, and at times barely even able to move to that side, he instead flicked forlornly at the ball with one hand on the racket.
Nadal rallied to win the second set, but he cut an increasingly forlorn figure in the third, where a double fault cost him an early break. The same thing had happened in the penultimate game of the opening set, and again, it was to prove fatal. Nadal, looking crestfallen, hung his head at the changeovers and cast anxious glances up towards his family.
Nadal threw himself a lifeline in the opening game of the fourth, pouncing on a short volley from Fritz to break with a rifled backhand pass. But when the American hit back to level again, he fleetingly leaned his head on the backstop in despair. In that moment, Nadal’s grand slam dream seemed lost. Once more, though, he clung on. Gradually, his serve began to pick up greater velocity. He started to hit his backhand more freely. Having broken at 5-5, Nadal served out the set to love.
Fritz didn’t stop coming. Nadal forged ahead in the seventh game of the decider only to be pegged back immediately. On we went to the tiebreak, where a brilliant backhand pass from Nadal paved the way for a 5-0 lead. Again Fritz responded, compiling a run of three straight points punctuated with an ace. This time, though, Nadal was not to be denied, running away with five of the next six points to leave his fate in the hands of the medics.
“I just wanted to give myself a chance,” said Nadal. “Not easy to leave the tournament, not easy to leave Wimbledon, even if the pain was hard. I wanted to finish. That’s what I did, I fought. I’m proud about the fighting spirit and the way I managed to be competitive under tough conditions.”
Asked about his prospects of facing Kyrgios, who came through 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) against Chile’s Cristian Garin, Nadal sounded downbeat.
“There is something even more important than win[ning] Wimbledon, that is the health,” he said. “Let’s see.”