It was a dream come true for a 34-year-old Gilles Muller from Luxembourg as he took the upper hand in an epic five-set marathon against Rafael Nadal. He will face Marin Cilic next in his first grand slam quarter-finals at All England Club. However, this isn't his first appearance in the Grand Slam quarter-finals as he was able to reach this stage already at the US Open in 2008.
Gilles Muller broke Nadal's winning streak
Not many people know that it wasn't the first time that Muller beat Nadal at Wimbledon. He was able to do so way back in 2005 when Rafa was only 19 years old.
It was a sensational win then given the fact that Nadal had just won his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. A similar scenario took place on Monday evening as Muller took the upper hand in a five-set marathon breaking Nadal's winning strike. Rafa had 10 consecutive wins, and what's even more impressive is that he didn't even drop a set in a single one of those matches.
Gilles Muller is playing his best season
There is no doubt that Gilles Muller played the match of his career last night. But given the fact that he is playing his best season, it was now or never for a 34-year-old veteran from Luxemburg. He already won two titles this year, one at the beginning of the season in Sydney and the other one just a couple of weeks ago at Hertogenbosch.
But who would have hoped for this? Nadal was in beast-mode throughout the clay-court season clinching 5 titles. He only lost to Thiem at the quarter-finals at Rome but he soon came back on the winning course at the French open. Not only did he win it but he also didn't drop a set. And his opponents didn't have the slightest chance to do so.
After taking a break for almost a month, he appeared at the Wimbledon Championships. And he continued in a similar fashion beating John Millman, Karen Khachanov and Donald Young in straight sets. Ahead of this match, Rafa Nadal was confident that he can continue his winning streak. But Gilles Muller had other plans for Rafa.
He beat Fucsovics in the first round before he survived a scare in the second round against Lukas Rosol taking him down in a close five-setter. After that, he beat Bedene in straight sets. There's no doubt that Muller struggled to get to fourth round but that didn't stop him from producing his best tennis against Rafael Nadal.
After Muller took the first 2 sets relatively easy, Nadal struck back as he took the other two in a similar fashion. We could see good tennis from both sides in the first four sets, but it will be the fifth set that this match would be remembered for. The court was on fire as they produced an unbelievable fight one point after the other. Finally, after almost 5 hours of the game, Muller broke Nadal which meant the victory for a 34-old Luxembourgian.
Moving on
Next, Muller will face Marin Cilic who is in incredible form after reaching the finals at Queen's Club couple of weeks ago. It was then that he beat Muller in the semi-finals. With that in mind, things don't look good for Muller as he is obviously exhausted both physically and mentally, while on the other hand Cilic is fresh and is yet to drop a set at this year's Wimbledon. However, Gilles was able to beat the odds before, so there is every reason to believe that he will be able to do so again on Wednesday? We're just going to have to wait and see.
