Unhappy Nadal hits out after Wimbledon win

Updated 17.06 Wed Jul 04 2007

Rafael Nadal has hit out at Wimbledon officials after finally booking his place in the fourth round.

Nadal had to wait five days to see off Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 7-5 as rain and bad weather blighted his efforts at the All England Club.

Rafael Nadal had to wait five days to see off Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-4 6-4 6-7 4-6 7-5 as rain and bad weather blighted his efforts at the All England Club

The world number two will take on 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny for a place in the quarter-finals.

But he was left far from impressed by the way in which officials at Wimbledon have handled the scheduling of matches as they bid to prevent the tournament from spilling over into a third week.

He told reporters after getting through "the toughest match of my career" that he did not think officials at the All England Club "thought about the players".

The Spaniard added: "I don't understand why we don't play on Sunday when the weather was OK. I don't understand why they cancelled yesterday, when at 8.10pm the sunshine is here for one hour so we can play."

While Nadal has been waiting to finish his third-round clash with Soderling, defending champion Roger Federer has not played since Friday after receiving a bye through to the last eight.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic beat Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 6-7 6-2 7-6 to set up a meeting with Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.

And third seed Andy Roddick has booked his place in the quarter-finals with a 6-2 7-5 7-6 victory over Paul-Henri Mathieu while 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4 6-3 6-4.

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