Rafael Nadal, who saw off the Australian teenager Alex De Minaur in three sets on Saturday, is enjoying the sort of renaissance only champions such as Roger Federer know – and the two finest players of their generation remain on course to contest the title for a fourth time next Sunday.
The 36-year-old Federer resumes his campaign on Monday against the efficient Frenchman Adrian Mannarino; Nadal will rest his 32-year-old bones before re-entering the fray in the fourth round for the eighth time in 13 visits. He is in much better mood, shape and form than when losing at the same stage last year, in five sets to Gilles Muller.
It was fitting, perhaps, that a few champion boxers – David Haye, Carl Froch and Nicola Adams – were among the many sporting luminaries crammed into the royal box to watch the pugnacious veteran inflict the sort of drawn-out damage on his callow opponent, the youngest left in the draw at 19, that would not look out of place at York Hall on a Friday night.
Nadal’s 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win was quick by tennis standards – just over two hours – and De Minaur’s bruises will heal quickly enough. He could not convert either of the two break points that came his way but he saved seven of 12, forcing Nadal to dig deep several times, especially in a long finish.
“Positive match for me, with some tough moments at the beginning,” Nadal said as he left Centre Court. “I’m just happy to be through. Playing in front of these people [including his good golfing friend Sergio García and a rather impatient Sir Bobby Charlton] is a big honour.”
Nadal led 3-1 after 20 minutes, hardly a startling statistic – except that half of that was taken up in a wonderful struggle over De Minaur’s serve in the fourth game, when he saved four break points and fought through deuce six times before his tired backhand billowed the net and moved the score along. It was a mini-match in itself and confirmed what his admirers have long known: the Australian is a fighter in the mould of his mentor, Lleyton Hewitt. He plays without fear, which is the gift of youth – as Nadal must remember.
That may be why he was so fired up. Certainly he was more on point than in his match two days earlier, when he was fortunate to escape a fine for not starting on time, so engrossed was he with his pre-match rituals.
The intensity of the occasion struck De Minaur as Nadal began to pull clear of him, though, and a second double fault gave the two‑times champion another break as he served out the set in just over half an hour.
Wearing a 109 tattoo – to signify he was the 109th player to play Davis Cup for Australia – De Minaur split his teenage years between his mother’s birthplace in Spain and Australia. His father is Uruguayan but the Demon, as he is known, divides his outside sporting loyalties between Real Madrid (Nadal’s club) and golf – which he would have taken up had the tennis not panned out.
And panned out it has – although not to his satisfaction here. Nadal, whose stocks and spirits rose to stratospheric heights on his beloved clay this summer, culminating in an 11th French Open title, has carried that renewed self-belief to the grass of Wimbledon, which has not exactly been a killing field for him in recent years.
Four years ago, he lost in the fourth round to De Minaur’s compatriot, Nick Kyrgios, who was also 19 years old at the time, and ranked 144. He would be one of four opponents ranked 100 or worse to get the better of Nadal at the place where he has won two championships.
Nadal raced through the second set nearly as quickly as he had won the first, although De Minaur fought hard for every point. There were heartfelt cheers of appreciation for all of his minor successes and some of the rallies at the end were as long as those at the beginning.
De Minaur, like a keen young pugilist with his entire career in front of him, was still bouncing side to side on match point, anticipating the final blow but hoping it would not land. He saved two match points before Nadal delivered the closing shot.
As much as the game craves the arrival of the next generation, there can be no denying that Nadal, who retained his No 1 ranking with this win, and Federer are still the players to beat when the prize matters most.
.jpg?w=600)
