Taylor-made for Rafa

LONDON, July 6

A hurting Rafael Nadal exhibited heroic mental strength to edge American 11th seed Taylor Fritz in a final set tiebreaker during a captivating Wimbledon quarterfinals contest today to keep alive his quest for a calendar year Grand Slam.

Struggling with an abdominal injury, Nadal appeared close to retiring mid-match on Centre Court but found the will to beat the 24-year-old Fritz 3-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 7-6 (10-4) in four hours and 20 minutes to set up a semifinal showdown against Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios.

Unlike Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios reached the first Grand Slam semifinals of his chequered career with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Chile's Cristian Garin.

The unseeded 27-year-old lost the opening nine points on Court One but ultimately had too much firepower for Garin who had hoped to become Chile's first Wimbledon semifinalist.

On the eve of the match, Kyrgios was summoned to appear in a Canberra court next month on an alleged common assault charge, hardly ideal preparation for one of his biggest matches.

But any off-court distractions he managed to put to one side in a relatively low-volume display sprinkled occasionally with the instinctive shot-making that makes him such a draw.

Garin battled hard to extend the third set into a tiebreaker and looked set to drag the match into a fourth set when he led it 5-3 but Kyrgios hit back to win the last four points.

You don’t mess with Halep

For almost 45 minutes, Simona Halep handed out a public flogging to a shell-shocked Amanda Anisimova in their quarterfinals match.

It was getting so bad for Anisimova, her fellow American John McEnroe quipped: "This is bordering on embarrassing... this will be over in 10 minutes." McEnroe's prediction was a little off but Romanian Halep will be fancying her chances of reaching a second Wimbledon final in three editions after subjecting a red-faced Anisimova to a 6-2 6-4 mauling on Centre Court.

"It's great to be back in the semifinals. I'm very emotional right now. It means a lot," a beaming Halep said after setting up a last-four showdown with 17th seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.

For Anisimova, everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

The 20-year-old American had struck a tournament-leading 108 winners coming into the quarterfinals, but those shots were in short supply against an opponent who feels at home on grass and has not dropped a set in these championships. — Reuters

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