Australian Open 2018: Day 9 round-up
Day 9 saw the beginning of the quarter-final matches. With stars such as Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Elina Svitolina, and Caroline Wozniacki all in action, fans had a lot of action to look forward to. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal took on Marin Cilic in what was undoubtedly the marquee match of the day. Without further ado, let's have a look at all the action that took place in Melbourne Park on Tuesday.
#1 Rafa retires
In a surprise turn of events, Rafael Nadal retired from his match against Marin Cilic during the fifth set. When Nadal won the first set 6-3 and broke Cilic in the second set, it seemed that Nadal would take control and complete the match in three sets. Cilic, however, broke back, and then won four games in a row to win the set 6-3.
Nadal won the third set in the tie-break. Nadal took a medical timeout for his right thigh in the fourth set with Cilic leading 4-1 who then went on to win the set 6-2 while Nadal started to limp.
Rafa needed treatment on his knee during the changeover. He made little effort on Cilic's serves as it was apparent that the knee was troubling him. In the next game Nadal was in visible pain and after going down by two games he decided that he cannot go on. A forlorn Nadal then shook the umpire's and Cilic's hand.
Nadal's injury should not take anything away from Cilic as he played aggressively hitting 83 winners to Rafa's 39 and 54 unforced errors to Rafa's 30. He also had 20 aces as compared to Rafa's 3. It was an unfortunate end to a thrilling match. The final scorecard read in Cilic's favour 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2, 2-0.