LONDON: Defending champion Rafael Nadal said on Tuesday that he will be fit to play his Wimbledon quarterfinal against Mardy Fish after a scan revealed he had not suffered a serious left foot injury.
The world number one suffered the injury in Monday’s last 16 win over Juan Martin del Potro and immediately revealed that his future participation in the tournament was in doubt.
But the 25-year-old revealed on his Facebook page that he will be fit to tackle Fish on Wednesday.
“Yesterday after the match I went to take an MRI at a London hospital,” he said.
“During the match I thought I had something serious. But as the match went on the pain got better and thankfully the tests don’t show an injury.
Nadal, who was unable to defend his Wimbledon title in 2009 because of a knee injury, had his foot bandaged at 6-6 in the first set of his 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 triumph over Argentine 24th seed Del Potro on Monday.
The top seed was immediately despondent over his chances of taking on American 10th seed Fish on Wednesday.
“I cannot predict the future but I am worried for sure,I felt really bad at 6-5 in the first set” said the Spaniard.
Nadal had his foot bandaged during a lengthy medical time-out at 6-6 in the first set in Monday’s last 16 match on Centre Court. (Agencies)
LONDON: Veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, along with their respective partners, advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon mixed doubles event after notching up straight-set second-round wins.
Bhupathi and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina, seeded fourth, beat Australians Stephen Huss and Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 7-6 (3), while 14th seeds Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black got the better of the Dutch-Polish team of Rogier Wassen and Alicja Rosolska 6-1, 6-4.
Curtains for Devvarman
But it was curtains for Somdev Devvarman in the men’s doubles event after he and Japan’s Kei Nishikori lost 3-6, 4-6, 6-7 (5) to the sixth seeded French-Serbian combine of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the second round on Monday.
Bhupathi and Vesnina will now be facing an American-Belarussian combination of Eric Butorac and Olga Govortsova.
On the other hand, Paes and Black will be up against the winners of the second-round match between the third seeded Serbian-Slovak pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik and local favourites Ross Hutchins and Heather Watson. (PTI)