Rafael Nadal powers on towards first Wimbledon title

Jun 29 2008 Gavin Berry

AS darkness fell on Wimbledon last night Rafa Nadal continued to prove a shining light in his bid to win his first title at the All England Club.

The classy Spaniard just managed to beat Nicolas Kiefer in straight sets while there was enough daylight for the match to continue.

With visibility poor Kiefer seemed keen to get the match delayed until tomorrow - but then again he was being put to the sword.

Umpire Adel Araf held off long enough for Nadal to win 7-6(7-3) 6-2 6-3 with play not finishing until after 9pm.

And the Spaniard hopes his win against a German will prove a good omen for tonight's Euro 2008 final.

He said: "It won't be easy for Spain but I think we have a good chance. We have an unbelievable team and all Spaniards are happy about the way we have played.

"I will be watching the final with all the other Spanish tennis players. We will root for them together and right now I just want to wish our team the best of luck."

The Championships had already seen big guns such as Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick fall in the men's and Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic in the women's.

Nadal was desperate not to be the next victim of the giant killers.

It's not often the world No.2 finds himself being upstaged but on this occasion much of the crowd had enjoyed their fun for the day with Andy Murray's win before the Spaniard took to Centre Court.

Second seed Nadal was given a scare when he lost the first set of his last-round match against Ernests Gulbis but he recovered to win well against the Latvian.

While this latest match was all about booking his place in the last-16 it was also a chance for football nut Nadal to strike an early blow for Spain against 30-year-old German Kiefer ahead of the two countries' meeting in Vienna tonight. And the record books certainly pointed at that outcome.

In two previous meetings Kiefer hadn't even manage to take a set off Nadal!

Yet that statistic was put firmly to the test straight away as Kiefer signalled he wasn't simply there to make up the numbers.

He forced the two-time Wimbledon finalist to see off break point and took the set to a tie break.

But it was Nadal who eventually took it 7-3 to give himself a bit of breathing space against his plucky opponent. The blow of losing that tie-break knocked the wind out of the German's sails and the gulf in class began to show in the second set as Nadal applied pressure.

And when Kiefer hit a shot into the net on break point - only Nadal's second of the match - the French Open champion took a 2-0 lead from which he wouldn't look back.

He eventually clinched the set 6-2 but with darkness descending on SW19 there was the real fear that this match might have to be carried over until tomorrow.

But Nadal looked eager to get it finished as he raced out for the third set while Kiefer took a toilet break.

But it was the German's chances that were being flushed away and he only had himself to blame when he double-faulted on break point to hand Nadal a 2-0 lead in what turned out to be the final set.

Some players tire the longer the game goes on but not Nadal - he gets stronger and the 22-year-old continued to turn the screw on his helpless opponent.

And maybe that's why Kiefer continually asked the umpire Araf how much longer the match could continue with light fading badly.

The official's response was "30 minutes" as the clock neared 9pm but with Nadal 4-0 up that was surely enough time for him to wrap it up. Kiefer didn't go down without a fight though and broke back to make it 5-2 before holding his own serve.

That left Nadal serving for the match at 5-3 and thankfully for a weary Wimbledon crowd he made no mistake to book his last-16 place against Russian 17th seed Mikhail Youzhny.

Afterwards he said: "Kiefer is a difficult opponent on any surface but especially on grass.

"He has a good serve and a good volley, he's aggressive and I had to work for my victory.

"I played a good tie-break in the first set and started to play well after that. I'm just happy to be in the fourth round just now and I've done well by only losing one set."