Rafa scrapes into last 16

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French Open champion Rafael Nadal narrowly avoided an embarrassing exit at Wimbledon as he dug deep to beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 4-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-3 in the third round on Saturday.

Nadal, the 2008 winner here, had been pushed to five sets by unheralded Dutchman Robin Haase in the previous round and once again he struggled to stay on top of an opponent he was expected to dismiss with ease. The Spanish second seed had to come from two sets to one down to beat Haase and he was pushed into the same position again before finally securing a clash with France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu in the last 16.
“I’ve been fighting a lot last two matches,” Nadal said. “Physically I have a little bit of a problem on my right knee but I have one and a half days to get recovered.
“I am happy to be in the fourth round. For me it is very good news to have had very tough matches and win in the end.”
There were no such problems for British fourth seed Andy Murray, who routed France’s Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 to move into the second week without dropping a set in three matches.
Elsewhere in the Championships, men’s ninth seed David Ferrer of Spain beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in five sets to earn a meeting with Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling, who remains in the hunt for a second successive Grand Slam final appearance after defeating Thomaz Bellucci.

Sania, Bhupathi crash out
On a disappointing day for India, Sania Mirza crashed out of the women’s doubles competition, while Mahesh Bhupathi exited the mixed doubles event with second-round defeats at the Wimbledon here.
Already out of contention in the singles event, Sania and her Dane partner Caroline Wozniacki lost 6-7 (0), 3-6 to the 11th seeds pair of Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.
Third seeds Bhupathi and his American partner Liezel Huber were stunned by Russians Dmitry Tursunov and Vera Dushevina in the mixed doubles event. Bhupathi-Huber lost 2-6, 6-3, 3-6. — Agencies