Fresh from witnessing one resurrection, Rafael Nadal enacted another. A guest of honour at the Santiago Bernabéu the previous evening as his beloved Real Madrid bounced back from the brink of defeat to reach the Champions League final, Nadal performed a comparable feat of escapology against David Goffin to reach the last eight at the Madrid Open, saving four match points to claim a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (11-9) victory. It has been quite the week for national sporting icons in the Spanish capital.
Like Real, who were minutes from defeat against Manchester City before the Brazilian substitute Rodrygo intervened to drag the tie into extra-time, Nadal has form for dramatic acts of escapology. Just as Madrid had previously staged stirring comebacks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea this season, so the Majorcan has repeatedly shown his fortitude in recent months, not least by rebounding from two sets to love down against Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in January to mark his return from a six-month injury layoff with a record 21st grand slam title.
Nadal, who also fought back from 5-2 down in the final set against Sebastian Korda in Indian Wells two months ago, needed all his famed powers of recovery to ward off Goffin, although in truth he had only himself to blame after twice failing to convert match points in the second set. Those aberrations, rare if understandable after six weeks on the sidelines with a fractured rib, paved the way for an electrifying finale that transformed what initially looked destined to be a patchy but routine victory into a clay-court war of mesmerising drama and passion.
The Spanish crowd were put through the wringer, the Caja Mágica transformed into a seething cauldron of emotion as Nadal, the local hero and five-time champion, flirted first with triumph and then with disaster. “Sí, se puede!!” rang out the collective cry – “Yes, you can!” – and so it proved, although only just.
Four times in the final-set tiebreak Goffin held match point; three times Nadal roused himself, Rodrygo-like, to deny him. First came a vicious, biting serve that sent the Belgian on a fruitless chase into the doubles alley. Afterwards, a pair of courageous and immaculately executed drop shots. In between, Goffin contributed to his own downfall, firing a short ball into the net at 6-5 to spurn a famous victory. His compatriot Kevin De Bruyne, the vanquished Manchester City midfielder, would no doubt empathise.
Nadal acknowledged the obvious symmetry between the match and events at the Bernabéu the previous evening. “It’s always that our trajectory is about fighting, is about believing, is about trying till the last, until the match is done,” said the 35-year-old when invited to expand on the comparison.
“Probably that’s why we were able to [fight back]. Of course, adding that Real Madrid is a great team with big talent. And probably I have a good talent too, no? We [both] try till the end, and we believe.”
The initial skirmishes offered little hint of the excitement that lay ahead. Nadal picked up from where he left off against Dominic Thiem in the previous round, striking the ball with authority while remaining unusually error-prone. An early break point came and went after the Spaniard dropped a backhand short, and in the fifth game he double-faulted twice before receiving a time violation that seemed to disturb his concentration, drawing further mistakes.
Fortunately for Nadal, Goffin was in similarly generous mood. The Belgian gifted the break back immediately with double-faults of his own and further largesse was to come in the eighth game, where he recovered from 0-40 only to be undone by two wayward forehands. That was enough for Nadal to secure the set, yet neither man looked wholly convincing.
The second set began in different vein, the five-time champion bearing down on Goffin with greater intensity as he looked to stretch his lead. Bludgeoning crosscourt forehands pulled the Belgian ever further off the baseline, creating yawning gaps that Nadal exploited gleefully. As a run of eight straight points put the third seed firmly in control, and Goffin continued to overpress off the ground, a workmanlike victory beckoned.
Yet Goffin arrived in Madrid buoyed by a restorative title run in Marrakech last month, his career and ranking once again on an upward trajectory following a knee injury that forced him out of the game for six months. That setback, which forced him to call time on his season after an opening-round exit at the US Open last August, made the 31-year-old wonder if he would ever again regain the form that once carried him to three grand slam quarter-finals and a career-high ranking of No 7. His current position of 60th remains a far cry from his best, but he is relishing the return to clay and the confidence is beginning to flow again.
That became increasingly apparent after Nadal sent a regulation backhand long with Goffin serving at match point down in the ninth game. In the next game, Nadal smoked a forehand to earn a second match point, only to see Goffin hammer away a short ball behind a penetrating return before fashioning a break with a superb lunging volley. As Goffin relaxed, attacking the net with abandon and forcing the play from the back, tension crept into Nadal’s game. The Spaniard celebrated wildly after saving a first set point at 5-6, but when Goffin opened up the court with a searing return to fashion another, he was not to be denied a second time, a huge off-forehand paving the way for a titanic decider.
“At the end of the day you’re suffering in the match,” said Nadal, who will face Carlos Alcaraz in a blockbuster all-Spanish quarter-final after the teenager came through 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 against Cameron Norrie, the British ninth seed. “I said it many, many times. You have to learn on how to live with these kind of moments, and also to enjoy this kind of suffering. It’s what we work for, for thrilling moments.”
After a fine week’s work that has brought victories over Dominic Thiem and Denis Shapovalov, Andy Murray would no doubt agree with that sentiment. Unfortunately, however, the thrilling moments that lay in prospect as Murray prepared to face Novak Djokovic for the first time in five years failed to materialise, with the former world No 1 forced to withdraw following an untimely bout of food poisoning. News of Murray’s misfortune filtered through just over an hour before the pair were scheduled to go on court.
“I had a message yesterday from Andy that he was not feeling well,” said Feliciano López, the tournament director. “He had food poisoning, it sounds like he is feeling better this morning but [he] is still not well enough to go on the court.”