Rafael Nadal comes back to win against Taylor Fritz in 5-set Wimbledon thriller

Rafael Nadal did it again and his latest victim in Taylor Fritz who was powerless to stop the comeback that finished with a 3-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 7-6(4).

Nadal has been playing with a taped abdominal pretty much the entire Wimbledon event but today was the first match where it really trouble him. For a good part of the match, the Spaniard was unable to serve as well as he hoped with serves peaking at 130 km/h most of the time. Those were first serves by the way and while Fritz did use it to his advantage he could have done much more.

That reluctance is what lost him the match in the end because the American was very allergic to going to the net despite being in a very good position to do so many times. The rare times he did venture up front was not good enough because it is a weakness in his game. Fritz was down 1-3 in the opening set but won 5 games in a row to take the first 6-3. He was down 0-3 in the 2nd set but battled back to make it 3-3.

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Eventually, Nadal was able to find a solution despite struggling with the serve and his movement. He took a MTO for the injury to presumably take some painkillers and he continued the match. Fritz responded in superb fashion in the 3rd taking advantage of Nadal who was still largely struggling, especially when moving to his backhand.

The 4th set featured a better Nadal in all aspects with serves being stronger as well. Nadal was up an early break 4-2 but wasted it 4-5. He was still able to produce some superb shots to make it 7-5. In the final set, we saw a good battle between them but eventually, Nadal was able to grind him down. He broke him but lost his serve not long after that. In the match tiebreak, well, Nadal found a way, yet again 10-4.