Nadal through - at last

Rafael Nadal finally scrambled into the Wimbledon fourth round after one of the most prolonged matches in tennis history.

When the showers relented enough for him to defeat Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 7-5 it was five days since they had first stepped on court.

The Spaniard now plays number 14 seed Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round on Thursday and faces the prospect of playing every day remaining if he is to repeat his feat of getting to last year's final.

It is a manic schedule and ultimately one which may prove beyond a character even as strong as the muscular man from Majorca.

The pair were locked at 4-4 in the final set with Soderling the man demonstrating the superior mental toughness.

When they resumed this afternoon, however, Nadal wore the look of a determined man.

The first two games when with serve without incident but in the 11th game Nadal was forced to save a break point as Soderling boomed down huge groundstrokes.

The next game, however, proved crucial. The Swede's radar let him down and several of his big forehands started to go wide. Still, Nadal struggled to close it out although one acute angled forehand from beyond the baseline was supreme class.

Finally, and on Nadal's sixth match point, Wimbledon's most frustrating match came to a close when Soderling hit a groundstroke long.

The Swede challenged the call but the line judge was proved right and Nadal, who sank to his knees in relief, was into the fourth round.