Rafael Nadal was playing fantastic tennis in Wimbledon. The Spanish sensation didn’t drop a set in the entire first week, but eventually, he had to surrender to a fantastic Gilles Muller on Monday. Even if this is an upset, we all know that Gilles is a very dangerous player and at 34 years of ages, he is playing his best tennis. Therefore an unlikely upset was also in the cards. 

The Luxembourgeoise has won his maiden title early this year in Sydney, and he won his second one a few weeks ago in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on grass. Muller also capitulated only in the Queens semi final against Cilic in 2 sets. 

The match

Gilles surprised everyone after he won the first two sets by breaking Rafa once per set. Muller played a fantastic tennis, but it was clear that winning a third set against a die-hard Nadal would have been tough. In fact, the Spaniard managed to fight back to bring the match to the decider.

At the beginning of the 5th set it seemed as Nadal would have completed a remarkable comeback, but Muller disagreed with that. The duo refused to drop serve to engage in a fierce battle.

Rafa was the unlucky guy that had to hold serve to remain in the match to battle against some additional pressure. The Mallorcan saved two consecutive match points when he was 4-5 down. To save another one later when he was 9-10 down.

Eventually, Rafa had to fold in the 28th game of the 5th set when the Spaniard missed a forehand. The match ended after 4 hours and 46 minutes. The 5th set lasted 2 hours and 16 minutes. The final score was 6-3 6-4 3-6 4-6 15-13.

After the match, the crowd remained on fire after having assisted at such an epic battle.

I will probably not be feeling well tomorrow. MULLER

Soon after the match, Gilles commented

“I’m just glad it’s over, somehow I made it.

I probably won’t feel great tomorrow, but I’m pretty confident that I will be in good shape for Wednesday.” 

Next vs. Cilic

Gilles will face Marin Cilic in the quarters. The head to head is 2-0 for Marin that has defeated Muller a few weeks ago in the Queens semi-final.