The World Cup has Ronaldo, Wimbledon has Irakili Labadze. A little paunch, a little protrusion of man-breast, a little sag under the chin. He's almost like one of us. Labadze is what they call in tennis, a character. The Georgian qualifier had made quite a name for himself before facing Rafael Nadal as the evening's court jester.
The first qualifier to make it this far in the draw for six years, Labadze had previously not won a back-to-back match at tour level since the spring of 2004, despite losing to Roger Federer in the 1998 Wimbledon boys' final.
Modelling himself on the 2001 winner Goran Ivanisevic, the 25-year-old left hander has risen to 166 in the world with practically no support from the Georgian federation. The son of professional footballer Givi, Labadze's wry observation that "our federation couldn't even send me to Russia," summed up the humble beginnings.
That aside, Labadze, who ranted and raved through his match and had Nadal in trouble in the second set with his carefree, swinging style, entertained the crowd but ultimately fell short when it came to threatening the Spaniard for the match. Nadal took the first set 6-3 before narrowly winning a tiebreak for the second set.
That effectively tied it up for the second seed, as Labadze's conditioning could not have allowed him to seriously take the world's best claycourt player to five sets.
Still, the clowning around didn't affect Labadze's game but nor did it knock Nadal off his mission to show that his second seeding was justified and that the baked courts are now to his liking for a serious assault on the title.
An early break of service in the third set paved the way for a straight-set win and while the crowd, enjoying Labadze's animation, longed for a fourth set, it wasn't in Nadal's mind to provide a stage for the joker any longer than necessary and the 20-year-old's serve held true for a place in Wimbledon's last-eight club in two hours and 12 minutes.
From the point of view of the host club, a big draw was lost yesterday as Andy Murray succumbed to the natural wastage process of championship play. The Scot, having beaten fifth seed Andy Roddick in the last round, fell lamely in straight sets to the 18th seed Marcos Baghdatis in less than two hours.
The Cypriot, who broke through at this year's Australian Open where he made the final ranked at 54 in the world, took advantage of an off-key opponent and swiftly put him to the sword 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
One break of serve in the first set sent Baghdatis on his way as Murray struggled with his game and although he broke serve in the second set for 3-0, he let that go as Baghdatis went on to win six of the next seven games.
While the third set went on a tiebreak, it was a disconsolate Murray who struggled to explain the trough in which he'd found himself. "That wasn't good," said the teenager dolefully. "Got to be up there with the worst this year that I've returned."
Roger Federer also sailed on through to the quarter-finals. His three-set win over the 13th seed Tomas Berdych sets him up with a quarter-final meeting with Croatia's Mario Ancic. Lleyton Hewitt, not quite as untroubled as Federer but in the end effectively abrasive over four sets against Spain's David Ferrer, meets Baghdatis next.
