His mini-revival hit an uncomfortable bump when a double fault led to a dropped service game at the start of the third, however, and we were back in the land of serial uncertainty. Then, from nowhere, he conjured a break of exquisite subtlety to level at a set apiece. Something was still not right.Ī hush fell over Centre Court as Nadal went through the motions, struggling to serve at more than 100mph. Nadal ignored him.įritz, who has hit 136mph this tournament, greeted his return with a couple of sub-100mph efforts, but Nadal was unable to do much with even those lollipops. His father, Sebastián, motioned frantically from the player’s box to quit. Nadal made hard work of it to hold for 4-3 before leaving court for attention to either the abdominal injury he refuses to talk about or his chronically painful left foot – or both. It would stay that way pretty much all the way to the end. This was now an impossibly difficult match to read, as neither player hit a convincing rhythm. But the Californian lived up to his pre-match assertion that he would attack without reservation, forcing a couple of lazy errors from Nadal to get back to parity. Nadal regrouped quickly, cashing in on Fritz’s indiscipline to go 2-0 up in the second. Taylor Fritz was close to victory over Rafael Nadal but could not complete the job. Those ambitions took a hit in the eighth game, when a double fault put him 3-5 down, and Fritz punished him with two more aces to take the set. The Spaniard, who many thought would never win another Wimbledon title after his last one 12 years ago, had the incentive of reaching an eighth semi-final here (and 38th in all majors), not to mention the tantalising prospect of matching Rod Laver’s calendar grand slam of 1969. And each of them had something different to read into their past. He had fresh recollections also of defeating Nadal when they last met, in the Indian Wells final. Fritz, 24, came to the championships in good form, winning Eastbourne. However, when Fritz broke in the sixth game to get back on serve, there was a palpable mood shift. Nadal’s opening ace – 120mph down the middle – added to his relatively modest tournament total of 28, although he was putting serious revs on his top-spun forehand. Relying on his long, strong right arm to get into the fight with two aces – 129mph wide and 132mph down the middle to go with 58 free points that had helped him to enter the quarter-finals – Fritz still found himself a break down inside the first quarter of an hour. “But without doubt today was the worst day.” Nadal said he was going to have some more tests.
For a moment I thought I might not be able to finish the match.”
I had to find a way to serve a little bit different. It was not easy at all, I’m just very happy to be in the semi-finals.
“It was a tough afternoon against a great player. “I enjoy a lot playing these kind of matches,” Nadal said.
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