“He’s also 36 years old. So at 36, Rafa’s had so many problems with his foot. He had a procedure to numb the nerve right before Wimbledon and did not know if he’d be able to play Wimbledon.
“At this stage, he may be thinking, ‘A year from now, I don’t know if I’ll still be playing. I don’t want to finish Wimbledon and my last match retiring’. So he hung in there. The serve speed went way down, into the 90s and he just got the serve in.
“Then he had to rely on a huge forehand and just guile coming to the net, the slices and basically battling, being the warrior that he is.”
source: express.co.uk