World number one Rafael Nadal crashed out of Queen’s on Friday when French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pulled off a shock 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-1 win in the quarter-finals. Nadal arrived at the Wimbledon warm-up event admitting he felt exhausted in the aftermath of his record-equalling sixth triumph at the French Open. Despite his tiredness this was still a major blow for the Spaniard, who had reached seven successive finals before this defeat, and it leaves him short of game time on grass ahead of the defence of his Wimbledon title later this month. “After losing the second set, mentally I lost my concentration. It has been a lot of matches in a row and after that break in the third set it was a mountain for me to come back,” said Nadal. “I am a little tired. I wasn’t there like usual and certainly I think I need a little bit of break.” Tsonga added: “The first time I reached the world top 100 was here at Queen’s and today I have beaten the world number one. It was close to my best tennis — it has to be to beat Rafa.”
