Tweet
Enlarge PhotoSpain's Rafael Nadal celebrates defeating France's Paul-Henri Mathieu at the 2010 Wimbledon tennis championships in... Not even a vocal drunken fan, who had to be escorted out of the grounds by police, or a back injury to rival Paul-Henri Mathieu could distract Rafa Nadal on Monday as he blasted his way into the Wimbledon quarter-finals.After two successive five-set examinations, the 2008 champion was back at his aggressive best and he crushed the unseeded Frenchman 6-4 6-2 6-2 to set up an intriguing last-eight date with Robin Soderling.
"Gonna be very difficult match for me I think. Hopefully for Soderling too," grinned Nadal, who came into the news conference chomping his way through one of the 100 bags of Mallorcan biscuits he has at to every tournament.
"He is probably one of the more difficult opponents that you can play on all surfaces today, but especially here," added Nadal about the man he beat 22 days ago in the French Open final.
Nadal was sprinting towards a two-set lead when half a dozen police were called on to Court One to evict a male fan who kept on chanting Venga Rafa (Come on Rafa).
The man, in white shirt and blue jeans, was surrounded by the police and led away from the stands to the cheers of fans occupying neighbouring seats.
Nadal did not look up once to see what all the fuss was about but waited at the baseline for the commotion to die down before launching into another one-sided service game.
As the evening shadows crept across the court, Mathieu had been broken in the second set each time he had to squint into the sun and it was little wonder his body started to ache all over as he was constantly on the receiving end of a barrage of winners flying off Nadal's racket.
He called for the trainer at 5-2 down in the second set but the three-minute massage session is unlikely to have given him much relief as he stood in the line of fire.
Thirty five minutes later it was all over and Nadal gave the fans a left-fist salute after extending his record to 10-0 against the Frenchman.
The two-hour win meant the Spaniard spared his troublesome knees another long workout and was glad to get a day off before his showdown against sixth seed Soderling.
"I am here to try my best even with pain on the knees or without pain of the knees. I gonna try my best in all the conditions," he said before tucking into another of the "most important biscuits in Mallorca".
(Editing by Miles Evans; To query or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Powered by WizardRSS | Unlimited Web Hosting
