RAFAEL Nadal maintained his Wimbledon challenge, dispatching Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 at Wimbledon to avenge the worst defeat of his career – a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing in Chennai earlier this year.
The No2 seed battered Youzhny into submission in two hours and ten minutes on Court One. The Russian, seeded 17th, traded blows with the French Open champion from the baseline but the Spaniard over-powered his rival with some ferocious shots.
The 22-year-old, who is on course for a third successive final at the All England Club, overcame an early injury scare to post his straight-sets victory. The match was just one game old when he requested a break to allow his trainer to treat a troublesome knee.
Racing to the net, the Spaniard showed remarkable speed to return a drop shot but then pulled up after sustaining the damage to his right leg.
When play resumed the knee was dressed with extra strapping but the manner in which he bludgeoned his way to three break points in the fourth suggested there were no lingering ill-effects.
Youzhny hit the net on the third, but Nadal found himself in trouble a game later, firing a simple forehand wide to immediately concede his advantage.
The Majorcan was back in business when a cleverly-disguised drop shot secured break point and he concluded an enthralling rally with a brutal winner.
Youzhny kept his composure as he fell victim to two dreadful line calls in the eighth but he was only delaying the inevitable.
Nadal was in danger of running away with it as he broke in the fourth game of the second set with Youzhny doing the hard work only to over-hit what should have been the winner.
The Russian, who led Nadal two sets to love in the same round of Wimbledon last year before slumping to defeat, was being ground out of contention. His brave resistance was ebbing as Nadal emerged triumphant from one delicate rally to close out the set.
Youzhny amassed three break points in the opening game of the third set but Nadal steadied himself and averted the danger with a vicious passing shot, and was in control for most of the third set.
Court 18 witnessed something of an epic clash between tenth seed Marcos Baghdatis and Feliciano Lopez, the Spaniard saving three match points before winning 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) 8-6.
Lopez could celebrate a double victory after Spain's triumph in the Euro 2008 final against Germany on Sunday. "I have to be happy to be in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon," said the left-hander, the 31st seed. "Of course the football team made me so happy."
Baghdatis, a semi-finalist here before, was left to bemoan missing out on the three match points he had during the final set. The 23-year-old Cypriot said: "I was close to winning which is tough to accept. I had three match points in the fifth set but the guy served unbelievable during the whole match.
"He just went for it with guts, and he took the game. Good for him."
Germany's Rainer Schuettler became the second unseeded player, after Ancic, into the quarter-finals when he defeated good friend Janko Tipsarevic in four sets. Tipsarevic had knocked out former finalist Andy Roddick in the second round but Schuettler ran out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) winner on Court Two.
The result guarantees an unseeded player in the last four with Schuettler facing either Croatia's Marin Cilic or France's Arnaud Clement in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
The full article contains 621 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
