Rafael Nadal simply got outlasted.
No. 16 seed Gilles Muller got him in a four-hour, 47-minute, five-set marathon to post the upset and advance to his second career quarterfinals. It’s the longest match in the Wimbledon fortnight.
Fifth-seeded Nadal fell behind two sets to none, with his loss in the first set snapping a streak of 28 straight completed sets won in Grand Slams (tied for the third-longest streak all time).
The 28-game fifth set was the longest fifth set in terms of total games in his tour-level career (previous long was 16).
Nadal is now 2-2 in four matches against Muller. He’s 24-1 against all other lefthanders that he’s played in majors.
Nadal conceded 34 games. He lost only 35 during his entire 2017 French Open title run. Nadal lost despite outpointing Muller, 198-191.
Elsewhere …
Top seed Andy Murray reached the quarterfinals for the 10th straight year. That’s one shy of Jimmy Connors’ run of 11 straight, the longest streak at Wimbledon in the Open Era.
Roger Federer extended his Open Era record by reaching his 50th career major quarterfinal. It’s his 15th at Wimbledon, surpassing Connors for most by a man in the Open Era.
No. 11 seed Tomas Berdych improved to 6-0 in five-setters in his Wimbledon. His 137 major match wins are second-most in the Open Era by a man who has never won a major, trailing only David Ferrer’s 145.
No. 24 seed Sam Querrey is the only American man to make the quarters. None has reached the semis since Andy Roddick in 2009.
On the women’s side, Angelique Kerber will lose the No. 1 ranking after her loss to No. 14 Garbine Muguruza. Muguruza won despite making 40 more unforced errors than Kerber (Muguruza 50, Kerber 10); somehow they both won the exact same number of points in the match (101).
Kerber falls to 0-9 for the season against top 20 players, the most losses without a win by any woman in 2017.
Another upset featured No. 24 Coco Vandeweghe topping No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki. Vandeweghe won 80 percent of her first serve points. She’s trying to become the first American woman not named Serena or Venus Williams to win a major title since Jennifer Capriati won the Australian Open in 2002.