In the women’s draw, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber duked it out over an hour and 28 minutes, with the German emerging victorious in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals at Queens for the first time since her breakthrough run to the semi-finals in 2011. Nadal scoffed in response.
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For Nadal, the sense of what may have been is even more acute. “After having the career that I have, it is not a question of pressure”.
Pouille couldn’t believe it either, but he did not hesitate, converting on his fourth match point for the biggest victory of his career and a place in the quarter-finals for a second consecutive major.
Pouille was hitting with real freedom to take the opening set 6-1 before Nadal responded in kind to dominate the second in similar fashion.
It wouldn’t take the most knowing of all detectives to examine the evidence in the aftermath of the situation to realize that Nadal’s loss to Pouille was the latest in a series of losses – it’s just that in this case the match was so riveting.
Djokovic has contested just two full matches in four rounds because of opponents’ injuries, and the men he defeated in the completed matches were both ranked outside the top 80. “He’s a player who has all the shots”, said Nadal.
He didn’t even warm up on the court, because it would have required coming to the grounds hours before his match.
But after prevailing in a fifth set tie-break, the engaging Frenchman was also reluctant to say it was not the launchpad that would send him into another tennis orbit. A few games later, he did it again.
The Spaniard looked poised to reach match point himself when he came in on a short ball and looked set to unleash a victor.
And then there was that missed forehand at 6-6 in the final-set tiebreaker.
However, Nadal’s nerves were nothing other than what should have been expected. Monfils has not dropped a set in the tournament.
“My wrist is improving a lot”. “I feel great at this moment physically; mentally as well”. Later, when a reporter asked why he asked for the medical visit, Djokovic said with a smile, “I needed a little bit of a massage”.
“I think it was the best atmosphere I played on a centre court”, he said of the 22,000-seat cathedral of tennis. “That was something that I didn’t make today (Sunday)”. In this time, the overall issues have become clear.
Pouille, who has now won three successive five-setters to reach the last eight, wasn’t intimidated by the massive Ashe stage, even though he only practiced on it previous year. “I’ve known him for a long time”, Monfils said.
It was indeed a memorable result for 22-year-old Pouille, but Rafa’s exit was painful for the fans, who were anxiously waiting for his semi-final match with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
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Nadal acknowledged his sloppy forehand had been “a big mistake”. The biggest problem with assessing where exactly Nadal is in his 30th year, after so many struggles, is the fact that it’s hard to know with all his physical problems. “I will tell you in a few months or a few years”. Instead, as Nadal goes back to the drawing board, the wait continues for him to regain his wrist strength, to get fit and, above all, to avoid injury for a prolonged period.
