Rafael Nadal not only has remained No. 1 this summer, still hungry for more at 32, he also has remained a classic-match magnet.
He was part of the two best men’s matches at Wimbledon: defeating Juan Martín del Potro in five sets in the quarterfinals and then losing to Novak Djokovic in five sets over two days in the semifinals.
He was part of the most irresistible match so far of this United States Open: holding off the next generation and Dominic Thiem in a grit-and-rip quarterfinal in which the full-stretch shotmaking often boggled the minds of those who managed to stay awake until it finished at 2:03 a.