WIMBLEDON, England (AP) Heading into his Wimbledon quarterfinal against Rafael Nadal, Mardy Fish - just like everyone else - was well aware of the defending champion's much-discussed left foot pain.
Nadal sure looked absolutely OK against Fish on Wednesday, beating the 10th-seeded American 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the semifinals.
He seemed fine,'' Fish said.He moved fine.''
Indeed, Nadal showed no signs of any problem, darting all around Court 1 two days after heading to the hospital for an MRI exam to check the heel of a foot that began hurting during his fourth-round victory over Juan Martin del Potro. The test results showed no serious injury to the foot he fractured in 2004.
Nadal said his foot was numb Wednesday, thanks to a painkilling injection.
With so much talk about Nadal's problems Monday, Fish said he couldn't help but think at least a little bit about the possibility that Nadal might withdraw from the tournament.
The first few hours, I guess, Monday night - I mean, you're a human being, so those things creep into your head. You know, they blew it up pretty good - went to the hospital, this and that,'' Fish said.So, yeah, I mean, that's not the way that I want to go through. Would I take it? Sure, I mean, I'd take it. But I'm glad he's not injured. And clearly he's not.''
Fish knocked off 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych in his previous match, and he entered the quarterfinals having been broken only once in four matches.
Facing Nadal, though, presented a whole new set of problems, and Fish lost six service games Wednesday.
``I would have liked to have served even remotely as good as I have, you know, the full tournament,'' Fish said, adding that he'd never before played on Court 1 and needed some time to get used to that arena.
A lot of it has to do with the opponent. ... You know you've got to make it that much better when maybe that's not the case,'' Fish said.You've got to still stay within yourself. I think I over-served at times, trying to go too hard, too quick.''
At 29, Fish was playing in his third Grand Slam quarterfinal, and first at Wimbledon. He's still waiting to reach a major semifinal.
I'm not in this situation all the time. Further than the quarterfinals is where I wanted to go,'' Fish said.I'm lacking that one huge result, that one big one where it opens everyone's eyes and says, 'Wow, I can't believe he beat him; that's a really good win.' I don't have that.''
BRYANS WIN 16-14: Well, it wasn't quite 70-68, but top-seeded American twins Bob and Mike Bryan needed to get through their own marathon fifth set at Wimbledon - and they won it 16-14.
Seeking a second Wimbledon men's doubles championship and 11th Grand Slam title overall, the Bryan brothers reached the quarterfinals by beating Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Paul Hanley of Australia 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(5), 6-3, 16-14 Wednesday.
The match was suspended because of rain on Tuesday at 3-3 in the fifth set. When play resumed on Court 2 Wednesday, both teams easily held serve time after time until the Bryan brothers finally earned the only break point of the last set and converted it for a 15-14 lead when Aspelin netted a forehand volley.
With that lead, the twins didn't falter, taking the last game at love.
The Bryans next face defending champions Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Philipp Petzschner of Germany.
GAME OVER: Before meeting in the Wimbledon semifinals for the second consecutive year, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray clashed over something a little more trivial Wednesday: Who's better at a soccer video game?
To pass the time at various tournaments, Nadal - playing with Argentine tennis player Juan Monaco - and Murray - playing with his best friend, Dani Vallverdu - square off in heated matches with remotes in hand.
He lost the last few times. Well, seriously, that's true,'' Nadal claimed.He lost almost every time.''
Murray, not surprisingly, had a different view.
He maintained that Monaco carried Nadal, who is ``not that good.''
We always play with their rules,'' Murray said.They play with (Italian powerhouse) Inter Milan, and we're not allowed to play with Inter Milan, even though they're the best team in the game.''
If the Scot and the Spaniard ever played the video game mano-a-mano, Murray was sure the outcome would be very different.
We've never played'' 1-on-1, Murray said.But I think I'm better, yup.''
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AP Sports Writers Mattias Karen and Caroline Cheese contributed to this report.