Tennis: Second seed Rafael Nadal came from two sets down to reach the quarter-finals of Wimbledon this afternoon after a hard-fought 4-6 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 win over Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.
Nadal lost the first set 6-4 against Youzhny, one of only three men to beat the Spaniard in the last 12 months, and went further behind with a 6-3 reverse in the second.
But Youzhny was clearly below his best in the third set, which Nadal took 6-1, and the problem became clear when he called for a medical time-out before the start of the next set to have a massage on his lower back.
It was to no avail and Nadal levelled matters before, Youzhny who was in freefall by now, was easily broken in the third game of the deciding set.
He put up some resistance in his next two service games and saved one match point in the seventh game. But Nadal was simply unstoppable and served out for victory to earn a quarter-final meeting with seventh seed Tomas Berdych.
Earlier, Marcos Baghdatis reached the last eight for the second year running, beating Russian grinder Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 7-6 6-3.
The Cypriot was roared on by a raucous bunch of fans out on Court 13 and the 10th seed obliged with some swashbuckling tennis in the delayed fourth-round clash.
Baghdatis came from 5-3 down in the first set tiebreak to get on top and he again showed the greater adventure when it mattered to get through the second set tiebreak.
Sixth seed Davydenko, one of the most durable players on the circuit has enjoyed his best showing at Wimbledon this year but try as he might, he could find no way back in after dropping his serve early in the third.
Baghdatis set up a matchpoint at 5-3 when he won a rally despite slipping over during the points. Davydenko saved that with a volley, but Baghdatis made no mistake on his second opportunity, belting away a backhand winner.
Baghdatis, who lost in the semi-final last year to Nadal, will face either Novak Djokovic or Lleyton Hewitt in tomorrow's quarter-final.