/ Sport
WIMBLEDON
Issued on: 06/07/2022 – 19:12
Rafael Nadal returns the ball to US player Taylor Fritz during their men’s singles quarter final tennis match on the tenth day of Wimbledon at the All England Tennis Club on July 6, 2022. © Adrian Dennis, AFP
Rafael Nadal overcame an injury to beat Taylor Fritz and reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for an eighth time on Wednesday, keeping alive his dream of a calendar Grand Slam.
Wincing from an abdominal issue for which he took a medical timeout, Nadal couldn’t move the way he usually does. His trademark grunts of “Uhhhh!” were rare. He didn’t generate the usual zip on his serves, which dipped from a high of 120 mph to barely above 100 mph. He sought to end exchanges with a quick-strike forehand or a drop shot — sometimes with success, often not.
With much of the Centre Court crowd loudly supporting the 22-time major champion, roaring and standing after his best strokes, Nadal figured out a way to hang in there and twice erased one-set deficits against the 11th-seeded Fritz, emerging with 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4) victory to reach his eighth semifinal at the All England Club.
Nadal extended his unbeaten mark in Grand Slam matches in 2022 to 19-0 as he seeks to add a trophy at Wimbledon to his triumphs at the Australian Open in January, then the French Open in June. For everything that he’s accomplished, the 36-year-old Spaniard never has won the first three Slam titles of a season.
On Friday, Nadal will meet Nick Kyrgios, a 27-year-old Australian who will be making his Grand Slam semifinal debut after a 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Cristian Garin of Chile.
Kyrgios lost the opening nine points on Court One but ultimately had too much firepower for Garin, who had hoped to become Chile’s first Wimbledon semi-finalist.
In surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for 17 years.
It was a generally low-volume Kyrgios, who has been summoned to appear in a Canberra court next month on an alleged assault charge, although he did lambast his sizeable entourage as the match dragged on.
There were few baseline fireworks from the Australian but his serve once again underpinned his game, digging him out of trouble whenever Garin threatened to make a contest of it.
Garin battled hard to extend the third set into a tiebreaker and looked set to drag the match into a fourth set when he led it 5-3 but Kyrgios hit back to win the last four points.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
