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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina, right, slips on the grass during the men’s quarterfinal match against Rafael Nadal of Spain at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London today.
LONDON >> Top-ranked Rafael Nadal outlasted Juan Martin del Potro in a crowd-pleasing five-set duel to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal since 2011.
In a match filled with entertaining rallies between two of the biggest hitters in the game, Nadal came from a set down to win 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours, 48 minutes — the longest match of this year’s tournament.
Del Potro finished with 77 winners to Nadal’s 67 but failed to convert any of his five break points in the fifth set. Instead it was the Spaniard who earned the only break of the decider and he closed out the win on his first match point — leaving the fifth-seeded Argentine sprawled on the grass in exhaustion.
Nadal will face Novak Djokovic next in a rematch of the 2011 final, the last time the Spaniard had even made the quarterfinals at the All England Club.
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