At 6-5, Nadal had just hit a winner down-the-line when he looked like he was in pain. He received medical attention and was able to complete the match with a victory. After an MRI, Nadal has said the foot is not broken as he had initially feared. He planned to practice today and be ready to play on Wednesday. There is currently rain at Wimbledon. However, with the roof, the women’s quarterfinals are being played on Centre Court.
Nadal will play Mardy Fish in tomorrow’s quarterfinals. Nadal has a 5-0 record over Fish, but they haven’t played since Fish started moving up the rankings last year (starting around Queen’s) which coincided with his diet that allowed him to shed about 30 lbs and practice without injury.
Fish is having his best Wimbledon ever. This is the first time Fish has reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, and the first time he has been ranked in the top ten. He is currently one spot ahead of Roddick and should remain that way since he performed better this year than last while Roddick has performed worse than last year.
Fish has only lost serve once this tournament. However, del Potro also only lost his serve once in his loss to Nadal. Even if Fish serves well, he needs to win tiebreaks, or somehow make an impact on Nadal’s game. It would still work to Fish’s advantage if Nadal’s movement is affected. Despite the pain, Nadal appeared to move just fine against the tall Argentine. I expect that if Nadal is playing at 90%, he can still beat Fish. Fish will have to play great and Nadal will have to falter some. This is unlikely late in the tournament.
Brad Gilbert, ESPN tennis pundit, has predicted Fish might pull the upset, but I think he was expecting Nadal’s injury to be more serious and Fish to play crazy good. I don’t have the same optimism. I think Tsonga is the player that could cause trouble because he has more weapons. The match I’m curious about is how Tomic does against Djokovic. I think he’ll lose in straights, but it would be interesting to see if he has any ideas on how to beat Djokovic. He seems to be thoughtful in that respect.
