Wimbledon sees four epic five-setters open second week

It might have been the most thrilling day of tennis in 2017, and what a way to kick off the second week of Wimbledon. Competition was fierce with five ATP players ranked in the Top 15 set to battle against three other dangerous journeymen.

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal lost a see-saw 15-13 fifth set, but it would be more accurate to credit Gilles Muller for winning the contest. Nadal rallied back from a two-sets deficit to force the fifth by serving up 23 aces, but it wasn't enough.

He fought off four match points before finally falling in the 28th game, 12 minutes shy of five hours.

Muller used his sharp left-handed serves, cut off several balls at net and mixed in cutting slice that kept Nadal from controlling the baseline.

He was cool to the very end, never wavering even when Nadal made his charge. Muller’s career highlight gets him to a major quarterfinals for the second time, nearly nine years after he did it at the 2008 US Open.

The most-anticipated heavyweight matchup was 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic taking on Rome champion Alexander Zverev. The more experienced 26-year-old Canadian pulled out a tough 7-5 fourth set before closing the door with a 6-1 clincher.

Call it a minor upset, but 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych squeaked past Dominic Thiem, also in five sets.

Berdych’s experience and comfort on grass were factors, but it was an old-fashioned battle of clean, powerful strokes and occasional trickery on grass.

Maybe Sam Querrey’s five-set thriller over big-serving Kevin Anderson was not as famous as his third-round upset against Novak Djokovic last year, but he now has back-to-back trips to the quarterfinals. Not bad at all considering he had to endure an iron-man match against Jo_Wilfried Tsonga two days ago.

And speaking of Djokovic, the Serb never got to take the court to play his Monday match against Adrian Mannarino, thanks to the length of the marathons before him. He would take care of business on Tuesday, dispatching the Frenchman in straight sets.

Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JeremyEckstein1

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