On Monday night the 36-year-old Nadal stayed on course for a 23rd Grand Slam title with a straight-sets win over Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.

Rafael took the match with a 6-4, 6-2 and 7-6 win to set up a date with the 11th seeded Taylor Fritz of the USA. Fritz in his turn beat Jason Kubler of Australia 6-3, 6-1 and 6-4.

Nadal said he is happy to reach the quarter-finals at SW19 for the first time in quite a while.

“I think I continued in a positive way,” he said.

“Until the end when I played a bad game at 5-2, it had been a very positive match against a difficult opponent. Honestly, Botic has been improving unbelievable during the last year.

“In a personal way, after all the things that happened in the last couple of months, to be able to be in the quarter-finals here at Wimbledon after three years without playing here, it’s amazing so I’m very, very happy.”

The quarter-finals get underway on Tuesday afternoon with the defending champion, Novak Djokovic up against the 20-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport