Vampire Nadal bites back with best grass game to win another five-set thriller

If he were a vacuum cleaner, his trade name would be Vampire. It was Mikhail Youzhny's turn to fall victim to Nadal yesterday as the Spaniard came from behind to reach his second successive Wimbledon quarter-final in yet another thrilling five-setter.

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After the 92-hour span of the No 2 seed's previous rain-interrupted marathon encounter, this 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory lasted a mere three hours. No breaks, no overnight cessations. As Youzhny remarked through gritted teeth and with eyebrows raised in resignation: "For Nadal, that is nothing."

This is a man who can run for five hours and more on the leg-sapping clay courts of Europe.

Youzhny, a Russian with considerably more talent than grit, had played beautifully for two sets in establishing what looked like a significant advantage.

Nadal himself had contributed to an opening set of the highest quality with the Court 2 crowd purring then roaring their appreciation. Here was the perfect antidote to the misery of the previous 10 days, albeit one that by the end of another abbreviated day was struggling to ward off the symptoms of gloom.

The third set was only one game old when Youzhny appeared to catch a glimpse of the winning line. The effect was startling. He dumped the simplest overhead into the net and followed up with three further errors, including a concluding double fault, to give his opponent a first break of serve.

The effect on Nadal was equally dramatic. It was as if the barman had poured Count Dracula a vodka and tomato juice. He took a sip and allowed it to dribble down his chin with an almost macabre sense of an impending kill.

There followed three sets of such sustained aggression and excellence that Nadal himself was moved to proclaim the match his "best game on grass in my life".

That represents a considerable statement for a previous finalist, even though his body of work on the green stuff remains insubstantial compared to the great champions.

"I never play like this on grass," he added, as if to emphasise the point. It was, he thought, superior to his dismantling of Marcos Baghdatis in the 2006 semi-final and his laudable effort in last year's final.

As well as Nadal performed, his comeback has to be viewed in the context of an opponent who, while not exactly throwing in the towel, certainly lay on one.

Something clearly happens to Youzhny at Wimbledon when he loses a set. He calls for a medical time out. He summoned the physio when falling behind to Novak Djokovik last year and did so again yesterday when losing the third set.

Judging by the area in which the physio centred his massage, it looked as if the player was receiving attention to his backbone. "It's physical, not mental," insisted Youzhny, 25.

"I have pain in my back, not in my head. If I have something in my head I ask the physio to work with my head, not with my back."

To be fair, Youzhny withdrew after two wins during the pre-Wimbledon tournament in Halle due to back injury and claimed he had been assisted this fortnight by the rain.

The way he dashed to his chair during a service game when a few spots began to fall suggested he was hoping to be saved again by the weather. It was, frankly, his only hope at that stage.

Nadal had changed gear, though not any of his peculiar habits which must be particularly irritating when on the receiving end of a hiding.

The two daftest see him touch rather than pull up his socks at the start of each game and always insist on leaving his two bottles of water in precise and related positions.

The knicker picking — i.e., fidgeting with his shorts — apparently happens in a match, not in practice. "I was there all the time and the inspiration came later," Nadal continued in his self-assessment. "I played more aggressive (from the third set), faster with the legs, better movements all the time, on every ball try to do something, trying to hurt my opponent on every shot, trying to put the balls close to the lines all the time, serving hard."

He tried and succeeded in every aspect to win for the third time in his career from two sets down. The pendulum does not swing back when someone with his strength, fitness and determination is both on the charge and in charge.

Nor was the French Open champion likely to be fazed by being farmed out to Court 2. It was almost as if he had been placed on the so-called graveyard of champions — and graveyard of contenders — by way of punishment for his remarks about Wimbledon the previous day. Nadal, one suspects, rather relished the banishment.

"It was a little bit strange (being there) because for the last few years I didn't play on a court like this. It was smaller and the sensation and feeling is a little different.

"You feel the ball is coming faster than other courts because of space. But there was a great atmosphere. It was full and people were supporting a lot."

One young woman fainted, perhaps as much to do with the rain staying away as seeing her idol in the flesh. She was carried out by ambulancemen and later described as fine.

Nadal, who faces Tomas Berdych in the last eight, knows what he has yet to do if Roger Federer is to be beaten and Wimbledon won.

"The serve is important. I have to improve it if I want to win," he explained.

So, probably not this year. But some day soon the clenched fist, the uppercut and the arms aloft to the heavens will come together on Centre Court at the conclusion of a men's singles final. Then the fainting will spread.