(AP) – It was the kind of tennis that Wimbledon’s Centre Court crowd would gladly have watched all night long.
The show being put on by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was so good it could have been an instant classic had they been able to finish their semifinal before the tournament’s 11 p.m. curfew.
Instead, the two players — and a disappointed audience — were sent home after the third set on Friday with Djokovic leading 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9) following a tense tiebreaker that had more entertaining rallies than some entire matches.
The two players didn’t even get onto the court until after 8 p.m. because of an earlier marathon semifinal won by Kevin Anderson and when Djokovic converted his second set point in the tiebreaker — having saved three of Nadal’s — the clock had ticked a couple of minutes past 11. That left organizers no choice but to call it a night, although the announcement from the chair umpire led to a scattering of boos from some fans who clearly wanted more.
Most of them will have to watch the rest on TV.
The match will resume at 1 p.m. local time on Saturday, before the women’s final between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber. At stake is a place in Sunday’s men’s final against the man who was partly at fault for keeping Nadal and Djokovic out there so late. Anderson’s win over John Isner lasted 6 ½ hours and went to 26-24 in the fifth set.
Djokovic-Nadal had clearly been the headline act of the day — they have five Wimbledon titles between them and met in the 2011 final while Anderson and Isner had never made the semifinals before — and their tennis was at another level from the earlier match. Even Anderson said he could feel during his match that the crowd would rather be watching the next one.
“They’ve paid to see two matches, and they came pretty close to only seeing one match,” Anderson said. “I can feel the crowd (get) pretty antsy for us to get off the court. They’ve been watching us for over six hours.”
While Anderson-Isner was mostly a serving duel with a few longer rallies thrown in, Djokovic and Nadal repeatedly slugged it out from the baseline, chasing each other around the court and coming up with spectacular winners from every corner.
Many of the best points came in the tiebreaker, including a 23-shot rally that Nadal finished off with a forehand half-volley drop shot to set up his first set point.
It was one of three successful drop shots from the Spaniard in the tiebreaker alone, but Djokovic answered with one of his own to save the second set point at 7-6.
He eventually went up 10-9 with the help of a backhand passing shot and an errant shot into the net by Nadal brought the entertainment to an end — for now.
It led to the unusual situation of both players leaving the court to a huge ovation — and applauding the fans in return — but without there being a clear winner or loser.
Source: AP
After having the night to sleep on Rafa’s defeat and reflecting on the match, I’m very optimistic. Why? I’m so impressed with the variety which Rafa brought to the table and his willingness to come out of his comfort zone to try to find solutions and his physical agility was astounding. Ok, he made a few careless errors, but we must not forget that he was constantly under pressure in the match. In some ways, Novak has done Rafa a favour in forcing him to take risks and this bodes extremely well for Rafa going forward. Rafa is a great strategist and he and his team will study the stats and the video of the match to make the necessary adjustments and improvements.
NINE ACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : ) XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
ROIG WAS GREAT FOR HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : )
FYI
(a) The Championships is an outdoor daytime event. Therefore, in good weather, the roof will only be used if it is too dark to play on without it.
(c) . . .
Best efforts will be made to start play each day with the roof open. However, 45 minutes before the start of each day’s play, the Referee will decide if the first match will start with the roof open or closed.
. . .
[in rain]
If the projected interruption is sufficiently brief, as determined by the Referee, the normal covers will be used and play then continued with the roof open.
source: search “Wimbledon centre court roof protocol” (I cannot post direct link)
Rafa’s press conference is up on the Wimbledon youtube.
One thing stood out to me; he said “I am proud of myself”. So good to hear this from him.
We are proud of you too, Rafa.
Hello! Thanks everyone for sharing in the Rafa Wimbledon 2018 experience. Our champ almost made it, but it was not to be this time. He will certainly be back next year ‘fighting for the important things.’
I’m sure Rafa will take a lot of positives from his run in this tournament. Good luck moving forward with the rest of the season Rafa. Thanks for the great memories, always my champion!
If does not exist for rafa and thats why he is such a champion…….roger got one oppnent like rafa got 4 times in faces of rosol darcis kyrigos and brown ..godd servers and he lost the match ….rafa is not just one court player he is greatest tennis player ever played in open era along with roger and more….and time and again he proves it…rafa came short of matches behind him of grass clurt tournament….so he did fantasticlly well…and the forehand down the line is becoming so so vicious and rafa moment is reminding the old himself….vamos…well done rafa and team….
Rafa backhand is improved so much which was his weak part ..he always tries to improve …i hope rafa do the work on serve a little bit…..free points is so needed in tough moments……