Wimbledon 2018: Emphatic Rafael Nadal remains on course to emulate Bjorn Borg’s back-to-back record

Rafael Nadal has not reached the quarter-finals here since 2011, but the two-times champion has never lost belief in his ability to compete with the very best on grass. After winning his first three matches of the week in straight sets, the world No 1 remains on course to match Bjorn Borg’s all-time record of winning the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back on three occasions.

Nadal reached the fourth round with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who is one of the game’s outstanding young talents. The 32-year-old Spaniard has yet to meet an opponent ranked in the world’s top 70, but three quickfire victories have ensured that he will go into the second week relatively fresh.

After his remarkable exertions during the clay-court season, which he finished by claiming his 11thFrench Open title, Nadal decided to rest rather than play any warm-up tournaments before Wimbledon. That strategy might have run the risk of an upset in the early rounds, but the Wimbledon champion of 2008 and 2010 has looked comfortable here from the start.

Nadal, whose latest victory ensured that he will remain on top of the world rankings at the end of the tournament, started off as if he had one eye on getting back into the locker room in time to watch England’s World Cup quarter-final against Spain, though he ultimately missed the start of the match by half an hour.

At 19 De Minaur was the youngest player left in the men’s singles. Born in Sydney to a Uruguayan father and Spanish mother, De Minaur and his family now live in Spain. He has climbed more than 150 places in the world rankings in the last year.

The world No 80 made his Wimbledon debut this week, though he proved his grass-court abilities last month by winning the title at Nottingham and reaching the final at Nottingham.

Nadal did not have things all his own way by any means. The first set turned on a marathon fourth game of six deuces. De Minaur saved four break points, but on the fifth Nadal forced the Australian into a backhand error.

From 2-2 in the second set Nadal won four games in a row, but De Minaur refused to lie down. In the third set Nadal again made his breakthrough in the fifth game, breaking serve for the fifth time in the match with a forehand winner.

This time, nevertheless, De Minaur made the Spaniard serve out for the match. He also saved two match points in spectacular fashion, firstly with a brilliant forehand cross-court pass and then with some brilliant defence, and even had a break point of his own before Nadal finally closed out victory after two hours and two minutes with a winning volley.

“It was obviously a positive match for me against a very young player who has a lot of energy,” Nadal said afterwards in his post-match interview, which was conducted just as England were taking the lead in Russia. “I had some tough moments at the beginning and in the third set but in general terms it was a very positive result.”

Nadal will next play the winner of Saturday’s later meeting between Fabio Fognini and Jiri Vesely. After that he could face a heavyweight quarter-final showdown with Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Benoit Paire 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in a highly entertaining third-round encounter on Court 2.

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Paire had so much strapping on his left leg that he looked as if he had just walked out of hospital, but at times it was his mental state that seemed more of a concern. The Frenchman argued heatedly with the umpire, Carlos Bernardes, and at one stage took his frustrations out on his racket, which ended up in a mangled heap.

Although Paire’s movement was not all that it could have been, the world No 47 is a great improviser. His mixture of spins, his variations of pace and in particular his drop shots helped to stop Del Potro settling into any kind of rhythm.

Del Potro, who has yet to drop a set, got the better of three successive breaks of serve in the middle of the first set to take an early hold on the match, but it was Paire who made the first breakthrough in the second. Del Potro dropped his serve on a double fault to go 2-4 down but broke back immediately and went on to win the tie-break 7-4, hitting two aces along the way.

When Del Potro broke in the second game of the third set after chasing down a drop shot it seemed that the end might be swift, but Paire fought back from 3-0 down to level at 3-3. At 3-4, however, the Frenchman went 0-40 down, recovered to deuce, but then dropped serve when he netted a backhand.

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As Del Potro served for the match at 5-3 and 30-15, nevertheless, the defiant Paire played one of the best points of the tournament so far. With Del Potro pounding ground strokes into the corners, Paire raced from side to side in desperate defence before producing a sensational forehand cross-court pass winner on the run. It was a last hurrah, however, as the Frenchman missed a backhand on the next point before Del Potro completed his victory with an ace.

Milos Raonic reached the fourth round for the third year in a row by completing a 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Austria’s Dennis Novak, the world No 171. Play had been suspended the previous evening because of bad light with Novak about to serve at 5-6 in the third set. Novak went 40-15 up on the resumption, but lost the next four points to put Raonic firmly in the driving seat.

Raonic, who lost to Andy Murray in the 2016 final here, won five of the last six games to take the fourth set and secure a fourth-round meeting with another player ranked outside the world’s top 100. On Monday Raonic will play the American Mackenzie McDonald, the world No 103.