The aching knees of Nadal were not at par to face a fourth round knock off by an awesome performance from fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. The worn-out Nadal couldn’t do much but to wince and fall to the court, sitting with legs stretched out and head bowed.
Nadal a three-time French Open champion and a two-time Wimbledon finalist continued his struggle to solve the hard court mystery.
It’s for the first time that the 15th seed Ferrer marched to his maiden U.S. quarterfinal and complete the last-eight lineup.
At the end Nadal said:
He’s one of the best players in the world right now. He’s a very tough player, very fast. For me, it’s not a surprise.
The World No.2 entered his fourth-round match with a 4-1 career record against Ferrer and an eight-match winning streak.
Nadal won the first set in a tiebreak before having his service broken three times in the second set. In the third-set tiebreaker, he couldn’t recover after falling behind 3-0 and was totally disabled to face the heavy forehand groundstrokes. Avoiding two break points in his second service game of the fourth set, as Ferrer got the break to open a 4-2 advantage. The trial lasted nearly 3 and a 1/2 hours as Ferrer won 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Via: BBC
