Wimbledon Round 4: Gilles Mulle surprisingly defeats Nadal

(Baonghean.vn) - The Wimbledon tennis tournament witnessed a big surprise when Gilles Muller, a Luxembourg player, the 16th seed of the tournament, unexpectedly defeated Rafael Nadal, the 4th seed, with a score of 3-2: 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 and 15-13.

With his recent form being very high, up until the fourth round of Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal had not lost a single set and he confidently entered the match with Gilles Muller. In the previous 6 confrontations with the Luxembourgish player, Rafa had only lost 1, which was the second round of Wimbledon 12 years ago.

Breathtaking chase

Nadal lost to Mulle who played with great courage. Photo: Internet.

But contrary to the opinions of experts and tennis fans around the world, Nadal unexpectedly lost in a marathon battle that lasted 4 hours and 46 minutes. The 34-year-old Luxembourg player had a very good first serve and a poor start, so Nadal lost the first two sets.

During the first two sets, Nadal only scored 17 winners (equivalent to 22% of the total winners in the match). On the contrary, Muller was very successful with the serve and volley strategy (serving the ball to the net) on his serves.

The 16th seed took advantage of the crucial break points in the first two sets to win 6-3, 6-4. But 15-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal did not give up easily, Rafa performed top-notch tennis to win both sets again with the same score of 6-3, 6-4, forcing the match to be decided in the deciding set 5. However, due to his reduced physical strength and playing too perfectionist, the "King of Clay" missed the chance to come back.

At the age of 31, in nearly 5 hours of play, Nadal had to save 4 match-points in games 10 and 20, but on the 5th time, he could not stand firm. Rafa's hook shot went too deep, giving Muller a deserved victory. The statistics showed that Muller made many more mistakes than Nadal (52 errors compared to Rafa's 17), and also made many more double errors than Nadal (10 compared to 2), but in return, Muller won more points than the Spaniard (95 compared to 77 points), so he won a spectacular victory even though set 5 lasted 28 games.

Wimbledon Dirty Rider

Rafael Nadal is making a spectacular comeback, but Wimbledon's grass court is still a "dangerous land" for the former 2008 and 2010 champion. Photo: Internet.

Rafael Nadal is making a spectacular comeback, but Wimbledon's grass court is still a "dangerous land" for the former 2008 and 2010 champion because in his last 5 times participating in this tournament, Rafa has never advanced beyond the 4th round.

This defeat means Nadal cannot become world number 1 after Wimbledon while Andy Murray (who has reached the quarter-finals) is very likely to keep his number 1 position after this tournament.

The only man who has a chance of taking Murray's world No. 1 ranking immediately after Wimbledon is Novak Djokovic. Meanwhile, Muller's next opponent in the quarterfinals is No. 7 seed Marin Cilic, who defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

The reason why experts consider it a big surprise is because this is only the second time in Mulle's career that he has participated in a Grand Slam tournament and the first time at Wimbledon that he has reached the quarterfinals; before that, he had only reached the quarterfinals of the 2008 US Open.

Despite the early exit, Nadal was still satisfied with the atmosphere on Centre Court. “I played with all my passion in a great and passionate atmosphere here. I tried my best but my opponent played very well, especially in the fifth set. Thank you to the fans who cheered me on,” Rafa shared.

AT