Nadal wins clash of the needle

Rafael Nadal can rarely have shed more buckets of sweat or whiled away more pointless hours.

He finally progressed to the Wimbledon fourth round after beating Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 7-5 in an on-off, stop-start encounter which spanned five days and which he described as the toughest match of his career.

However, along with the sweat it was blood – bad blood – which finally gave him the incentive to defeat an opponent who had been as stubborn as the inclement weather.

Nadal and Soderling do not like each other. So to be pitched together in a match which lasted longer than some marriages only added to the mental tension which is now Nadal’s biggest obstacle to reaching a second successive final.

Ostensibly, the cause of their disagreement is Nadal’s speed of play. Not the swiftest. The constant bouncing of the ball, frequent use of the towel, the trademark pull of the shorts.

Nadal, however, accused the Swede of poor sportsmanship.

“I fell close to the net and he never even went to the net to say sorry or to help,” said Nadal.

The Spaniard also accused Soderling of failing to apologise when a net cord went in his favour and for not looking him the face when they shook hands at the end of the match.

“After four days that’s not normal,” said Nadal. “He is not the best guy in the locker room.”

Puerile stuff, you might think, but perhaps the tension was understandable after one of the most frustrating matches in Wimbledon history.

Not that Soderling was about to apologise.

“If he’s complaining that I never say ’Hi’ to him what can I do?” said Soderling.

“He must have been in his complaining mood today. If my opponent gets a lucky shot and he doesn’t say ’I’m sorry’, I don’t care. For me it’s okay. Why should I say I’m sorry when I’m like in the happiest moment of my life?

“I had to wait for him more than 200 times. It’s tough. All the players play faster than him.

“Every point I had to wait for him. He had to wait for me one time and already he was staring, shaking his head.”

But if there was no love lost on Court One then at least Nadal is through to a fourth round encounter against Mikhail Youzhny tomorrow, although he will have to play every day for the rest of the tournament if he wants the chance of another likely crack at Roger Federer.

That is a manic schedule, although if anyone is physically capable of it then it is the muscle man from Majorca.

His eventual triumph over Soderling was a commendable exercise in concentration, but there is no doubt it also highlighted his shortcomings on grass.

Nadal’s insistence on staying behind the baseline and implementing looping forehands heavy with top spin have brought him three consecutive French Opens.

But such clay-court technique is unlikely to eclipse the all-court sharpness of Federer.

As Soderling said: “Federer on grass is a better player. He has all the strokes. Federer is the more complete player.”

While Nadal was sinking to his knees in relief after Soderling pushed one meaty groundstroke long on the Spaniard’s fifth match point in the four games required to finish off the marathon, Federer was doing what he has been doing for the past five days.

Relaxing. Conserving his energy in the knowledge that he was already through to a quarter-final against Juan Carlos Ferrero.

It prompted Nadal to rue the unfairness caused by the weather.

“The chances of the bottom half of the draw is less than the top half,” said Nadal.

“We have to play a lot of days in a row while Roger has been having holidays for the last week.

He was right. Federer could have been to Majorca, topped up his tan and returned, in the time Nadal took to play a single match.