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.
Stunner.
Gilles Muller wins an epic 5th set 15-13 to beat Rafael Nadal and reach his first ever #Wimbledon quarter-final#ManicMonday pic.twitter.com/OpBMQFYnYv
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2017
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…
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