Rafael Nadal suffered fresh Wimbledon misery on Monday as the two-time champion crashed to a stunning 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 fourth round defeat against Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.
Earlier, the match see-sawed with Muller getting the better of Nadal by taking a two-sets-to-love lead. But, the resilient Spaniard powered through in the third and fourth sets to take the match into the fifth set.
Trailing Muller at 4-5, Nadal faced match points on his serve for the first time, but saved them both to keep himself in contention in the match. Muller eventually got the breakthrough on his fifth match point in the 28th game when Nadal hit his forehand wide. Muller’s win over Nadal is his only second win over the Mallorcan. Incidentally, both of Muller’s triumphs against Nadal have come at the Championships, with the first coming nearly 12 years ago, in the second round of the 2005 edition of the tournament.
Nadal hit a record total of 23 aces, going past his previous best of 19 that came in his second-round loss to Lukas Rosol at the Championships in 2012. Muller hit 95 winners to the fourth seed’s 77 and had 52 unforced errors to Nadal’s 17. As it then turns out, Nadal went on to finish the match with 198 points, seven more than Muller’s total of 191.
Just weeks after winning his 10th French Open title, Nadal was condemned to his fifth exit before the quarter-finals in his last five visits to Wimbledon.
The 31-year-old Spaniard, finally worn down by Muller after four hours and 48 minutes on Court One, hasn’t won Wimbledon since 2010 and last made the quarter-finals in 2011.
Muller, seeded 16th, will make his first Wimbledon quarter-final appearance against former US Open champion Marin Cilic.
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