Tennis: Nadal Survives Five-set Marathon

Rafael Nadal finally scrambled into the Wimbledon fourth round after one of the most prolonged matches in tennis history. When the showers relented long enough for him to defeat Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5 it was five days since they had first stepped on court.

Nadal now plays 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round tomorrow. He faces the prospect of playing on every remaining day of the tournament if he is to repeat his feat of getting to last year's final.

Defeating Soderling, the 28th seed, was anything but straightforward. The pair managed just five games and two points yesterday as they dodged in and out of the thunderstorms.

It left them locked at 4-4 in the final set with Soderling seemingly demonstrating the superior mental toughness. When they resumed this afternoon, however, Nadal looked the more determined man. The first two games when with serve without incident but in the 11th game Nadal was forced to save a break point.

The next game proved crucial. Soderling's game became increasingly wayward and several of his forehands went wide. Still, Nadal struggled to close the match. Finally, and on Nadal's sixth match point, Wimbledon's most frustrating match came to a close when Soderling hit a groundstroke long. He challenged the call but the line judge was proved right and Nadal, who sank to his knees in relief, was into the fourth round.

Third seed Andy Roddick also won his rain-delayed fourth-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu, of France, 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6), setting up a quarter-final appointment with either Richard Gasquet or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Novak Djokovic saw off Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).