Rafael Nadal Ousted From Gerry Weber Open at LinesMaker

HALLE, Ger­many (TENNIS/Newsfeed) — Rafael Nadal lost in the quar­ter­fi­nals of the Gerry Weber Open on Fri­day, beaten by Philipp Kohlschreiber 6–3, 6–4 in the Spaniard’s first tour­na­ment since win­ning a record sev­enth French Open.

Roger Fed­erer, a five-time win­ner of this grass-court Wim­ble­don tuneup, was taken to three sets but defeated Canada’s Milos Raonic 6–7 (4), 6–4, 7–6 (3).

Kohlschreiber, who is seeded eighth, won this tour­na­ment last year. The 34th-ranked Ger­man ended Nadal’s 13-match win­ning streak.

“It’s not the time to look for excuses,” said Nadal, who won in Paris four days ago. “He played much bet­ter than me.”

Fed­erer advanced despite 25 aces by Raonic. The Cana­dian had 13 aces in a first set he won in a tiebreaker. Fed­erer broke serve early in the sec­ond and forced a third set.

Fed­erer beat Raonic at Indian Wells in March and Madrid last month, going on to win both titles. The 16-time Grand Slam cham­pion is now favored to win a record sixth title at Halle fol­low­ing Nadal’s exit.

“Today, from the begin­ning was tough for me,” Nadal said.

Kohlschreiber had eight aces, end­ing the first game with his first. He broke Nadal in the next – after the Spaniard saved two break points – and inten­si­fied the pres­sure by pulling ahead 3–0.

The Ger­man missed a chance to break the 11-time Grand Slam cham­pion again in the first game of the sec­ond, and defended three break points to hold his serve three games later. Kohlschreiber broke again in the sev­enth game and quickly moved ahead 5–3.

“It was a world-class day for me,” Kohlschreiber said. “In prin­ci­ple I did noth­ing wrong.”

It was his first win over Nadal in nine attempts, although Friday’s match was their first meet­ing on grass.

“It’s more a ten­nis prob­lem than a men­tal prob­lem,” Nadal said. “The tran­si­tion is dif­fi­cult. It depends how much time you have. Play­ing on grass can some­times be a bit of a lottery.”

Kohlschreiber next meets the win­ner of Friday’s match between third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Repub­lic and wild card Tommy Haas of Germany.

Mikhail Youzhny of Rus­sia beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Repub­lic 6–4, 4–6, 6–4.