Close call for Rafael Nadal at the Wimbledon

On the famous Court 2, Rafael Nadal was close to give in to the spell of the Graveyard of Champions.

Close call for Rafael Nadal at the Wimbledon Rafael Nadal was two sets down to Mikhail Youzhny but pulled his seventh consecutive five-set win with 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Nadal simply gave his Russian opponent the first two sets, while the Russian was pinning back Nadal with deep groundstrokes and then drop-shotting on target. Youzhny showed his great serving skills, keeping the court under his control, while Nadal was struggling to find the right pace to beat the Russian tennis player.

Coming in the third set, the onset of back problems slowed down Mikhail Youzhny. After Rafael Nadal grabbed the third set in less than a half an hour, Youzhny spent some time having his back treated and there were two further permitted treatments at subsequent change-overs. A brief rain shower could have helper Youzhny, but it was short enough for them to just play through it.

After Nadal took the fourth set, Youzhny had to resort to a bathroom break, after using all of his allowed treatments. But his bad back and the exhaustion held Mikhail Youzhny in their grip, and Rafael Nadal took the fifth set 2-6 to win and move on to the quarter finals. Nadal will play against the Czech Tomas Berdych at the quarter0final match of the 2007 Wimbledon.

You can see all the betting odds on the 2007 Wimbledon quarter finals at Bet365.

Meanwhile Marcos Baghdatis advanced by beatingNikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in the fourth round, and Tomas Berdych was victorious against Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-0 6-7 (8-6) 6-0.

Published on 07/05/2007