13-15.

Five sets, almost five hours and 28 games in the decider later, this was the ultimate margin of victory in the epic fourth round clash between two-time champion Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller. The 34-year-old from Luxemborg emerged on top with a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 win and advanced to the Last Eight. While the French Open champion’s six-year streak of bowing out before the quarterfinals at Wimbledon continued.

Nadal came close – levelling the match after being two sets down and stretching the decider to the extreme. But the zen-like Muller held his nerve and serve and ultimate triumphed when Nadal hit one long. Even for those who saw the match, it would be hard to describe it, especially the final set in words. But here are the incredible numbers from the match that give an idea of just why it will go down as a classic.

  •   The match lasted four hours and 48 minutes on Court 1, forcing the last match – Novak Djokovic vs Adrian Mannarino – to be postponed. Incidentally, it was exactly as long as the Nadal’s epic 2008 Wimbledon final, where he defeated Roger Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10), 9–7.
  •   The pulsating final set stretched to 95 minutes, which is roughly how long Federer took to finish his match against Grigor Dimitrov. 
  •   Nadal actually won 7 points more than Muller in the match. The Spaniard had won 198 points to his opposition’s 191. 
  • Nadal converted just 2 of 16 break points with Muller fighting off a break point in the 13th game and four more in the 19th.
  • Muller fired 30 aces to Nadal’s 23 but had a whopping 95 winners, as opposed to Nadal’s 77. However, it should be noted that the World No 2 had only 17 unforced errors.
  • Nadal saved two match points in 10th game and two more in the 20th. It was on his fifth match point in the 28th game that Muller converted.
  • Nadal lost more games vs Muller in one match than he lost throughout his winning run at the French Open.
  • This was the longest fifth set of Nadal’s career in terms of games. But Muller has seen worse! Of course this wasn’t that long in comparison with the longest match Wimbledon has seen – John Isner vs Nicholas Mahut which went to 68-70 in the decider.
  • Lastly, here’s a look at the left-hander record against fellow southpaws