mtenis.com.pl

Spaniard is riding a 12-match win streak
Ten years after winning his first Wimbledon title, much remains the same for Rafael Nadal. The 32-year-old Spaniard is still among the best in tennis, No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. He's still a favourite to go deep into the second week at The Championships, and he remains one of the fiercest competitors on the ATP World Tour.

But this fortnight, the Spaniard will have an opportunity to do something even he hasn't done often in his Hall of Fame career. Nadal will try to win the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double for only the third time (2008, 2010).

Ten years ago marked the first time Nadal pulled off the unique challenge, dominating on both the slow European clay and the quick London grass. He starts the second half of the 2018 edition of that journey on Tuesday against Israeli Dudi Sela.

Nadal, who's making his 13th appearance at SW19, leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0, both on hard courts, and has never lost a set against Sela, who reached the Wimbledon fourth round in 2009 (l. Djokovic) and the third round last year (ret. Dimitrov).

Nadal is 43-10 at Wimbledon and has lost in the first round only once, in 2013 against Belgian Steve Darcis. The Spaniard is looking to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final since 2011, when he fell to Novak Djokovic in the final.

Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon champion, faces American Tennys Sandgren, who reached the Australian Open quarter-finals and is making his Wimbledon debut. Djokovic came just short of winning his second ATP World Tour title on grass in as many years during the Fever-Tree Championships last month, losing a championship point against Marin Cilic.

Sandgren has not won a match on grass (0-1) in his career and hasn't played since losing to #NextGenATP Pole Herbert Hurkacz in the first round of Roland Garros.

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev, who reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros, meets Aussie James Duckworth. Zverev lost his only grass-court match of the year at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle to Borna Coric, who beat Roger Federer in the final.

Juan Martin del Potro, the 2013 Wimbledon semi-finalist, meets the hard-working Peter Gojowczyk of Belgium. Del Potro is playing at SW19 for the third consecutive time but for only the third time since 2013.

Other notable matchups to watch:

No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria vs. Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis;
Top Brit and 21st seed Kyle Edmund vs. Aussie Alex Bolt;
10th seed David Goffin vs. Aussie Matthew Ebden, finalist on the Newport grass last year;
2014 quarter-finalist Nick Kyrgios vs. Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan;
18th seed Jack Sock vs. Italy's Matteo Berrettini;
#NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe vs. 30th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain;24th seed Kei Nishikori vs. Christian Harrison of the U.S.;
Canada's #NextGenATP star Denis Shapovalov, the 26th seed, vs. France's Jeremy Chardy.