Heroic Nadal finds steel to edge Fritz in epic, Kyrgios overpowers Garin

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

Struggling with an abdominal injury, Nadal appeared close to retiring mid-match but found the will to beat 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.

“The body is generally fine. Of course, in the abdominal (area) something is not going well,” Nadal said on Centre Court.

“I had to find a way to serve a little bit different. For a lot of moments I was thinking maybe I will not be able to finish the match. But I don't know, the court, the energy is something else, so thanks for that.”

The All England Club, where the Spaniard has won two of his 22 majors, has been the least rewarding place for Nadal but he arrived this year having won the Australian and French Open titles back-to-back for the first time in his career. A third Wimbledon title and first since 2010 on the manicured lawns and a US Open triumph at Flushing Meadows would see the Mallorcan claim the calendar slam — a feat last achieved in 1969 by Australian great Rod Laver.

Fritz, 12 years younger than the 36-year-old Nadal, dealt a blow to the Spaniard earlier this year in the final of the ATP 1000 event in Indian Wells, putting an end to his 20-match winning run in the season. But Nadal played that match with a stress fracture in his rib, which later ruled him out of competition for a month.

Nick Kyrgios reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of his chequered career with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Chile's Cristian Garin, setting up a mouth-watering clash with Nadal.

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 semi-finalist.

In surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarterfinals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Lleyton Hewitt at the 2005 US Open.

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.