Rafael Nadal recovers to blow away Mikhail Kukushkin in four sets

Rafael Nadal hit a level of excellence on day six of the Wimbledon championships that was so good it erased the temporary pain of his third straight false start, leaving poor Mikhail Kukushkin in a bewildered heap on Centre Court.

There are a few ways to beat Nadal over five sets. One of them would get you a stretch in prison and the confiscation of your machine gun; another is to summon the courage to take on the fearsome Spanish hitter at his own game and hope he disintegrates. Usually only Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray in recent years have been capable of the latter, and not very often – but players such as Lukas Rosol and Steve Darcis here in the past two years have given mortals hope with their audacity.

Kukushkin does not have the weapons of Djokovic or Murray, although he is as dangerous an opponent as Rosol or Darcis. And for nearly an hour under the roof on Saturday, with the rain drenching the poor people outside, the Russian-born Kazakh, playing way above his world ranking of 63, did what ambitious underdogs do against Nadal: he found his very best tennis, chipping, charging, mixing up his pace and spin, producing the occasional ace – and he still came up short, because he could not sustain it.

Nadal lost the first set for the third time in the tournament, which is a minor worry for him, but, once he found a rhythm, he drew away from Kukushkin like a Rolls Royce leaving a rollerskate on the pavement. He took two hours and 33 minutes to win 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, the sort of score that suggests he had his foot stuck on the brake pedal, revving the rivets out of his engine.

Nadal plays the youngest player left in the men’s draw, the 19-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios, who came back from an uncertain start to beat another former junior world No1, Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 out on Court 17 in a little over two hours.

Kyrgios, who is making his Wimbledon debut and has been the brightest new light of the tournament, is the first wild card to to reach the fourth round since Juan Carlos Ferrero five years ago.

Nadal said: “At the beginning he was playing really well and I made a few mistakes on his second serve and that led to the tie-break where I didn’t serve my best. I finished all my matches better than I started and that is all that matters.”

It was a strange day all round – traditionally the one where British athletes from other sports gather in the royal box and Sue Barker coos all over them on behalf of the BBC and the establishment in general in her uniquely syrupy way.

Anyway, in front of David Beckham (alongside his mum, Sandra), Sir Bobby and Lady Norma Charlton, Andy Murray’s mum, Judy, and an eclectic smattering of famous cricketers, golfers, rugby players and pugilists, as well as various members of the aristocracy not personally known to this reporter, Nadal began his third-round match against Kukushkin with a slip on the turf and a few rusty ground strokes.

Thereafter, he did not often put a foot wrong. The statistics placed only 12 unforced errors against his name, four of those in the first set.

If Kukushkin’s shorts had been a bit longer and tartan-trimmed he would not have looked out of place in the Bay City Rollers, but they hardly restricted his movement or ambition and for half an hour he went mortar bomb for grenade with his esteemed opponent. While it lasted, it was a joy to watch.

He had the serving cycle as a cushion, so Nadal was serving to stay in the set at 4-5 after 38 minutes; if Kukushkin were to spread some panic, this was the game to do it in but the pressure got to him. Nadal held to love – twice – and within 20 minutes, they went to the lottery of the tie-break – in which the Spaniard found himself in a whole heap of trouble, sent the wrong way three times in high-class rallies and down three set points.

He saved the first with an ace that kicked so viciously it would have done Mitchell Johnson proud (the Australian fast bowler, incidentally, was a very good junior tennis player), but a wayward backhand gifted Kukushkin the set and, yet again, a frisson of doubt ran through Nadal’s interesting Wimbledon campaign.

Then the dialogue was reduced to a question of stamina – not just of the legs but the mind, and, with play temporarily suspended beyond the comfort of the covered main court owing to rain, it was as if all the energy in Wimbledon was channelled into this contest. Nadal, spurred by the danger of losing his grip on a match he was generally reckoned to own beforehand, now found another gear.

In a flash, like a roused rattlesnake, he induced anxiety in Kukushkin’s racket, forcing him wide, then deep, then both, with wicked topspin and, almost inevitably, his opponent cracked, pushing a backhand into the net from an impossible position to trail 1-3.

Nadal had a platform at last. He then played the most improbable shot, running back and around his forehand to drill the winner along the diagonal into the opposite corner to break again, his fourth game in a row. When he served out to love with his seventh ace to level at a set apiece, he most definitely had established dominance.

From that point to the brutal conclusion, Kukushkin could not break down Fortress Nadal. He won only two more games, almost afterthoughts in a battle that turned into a massacre.

Better players than Kukushkin have crumbled in Nadal’s presence. What might hurt the Kazakh more than others so heavily humiliated, however, is the memory of that wonderful first set. If he could reproduce that every time he would no doubt be a top 50 player. Actually, if he could reproduce that every time he would be Rafael Nadal.