"A lot of relief."

That is what Gilles Muller said he felt after he defeated Rafael Nadal in five sets on Monday night.

The Luxembourger beat his Spanish opponent despite losing the third and fourth sets with Nadal rescuing several match points in the process.

Muller had won the first two sets and Nadal looked like conquering in the fifth with the momentum behind him.

"I had those match points before. I mean, the noise the crowd made every time he saved a match point was just massive.

"So, yeah, at that moment I think also in my head I was thinking 'We have to finish this now or otherwise we're going to come back tomorrow.'

"I knew it was going to be maybe another 10, 15 more minutes maximum. Yeah, just a lot of relief to finally get it done."

Muller was under no allusions prior to the match that Rafa, a two-time champion at Wimbledon, would be the crowd's choice of victor and didn't begrudge the crowd from cheering on the more familiar face of his opponent.

"Well, I mean, it's kind of what you get when you play Rafa, Roger [Federer], Andy [Murray], Novak [Djokovic]. They're always the crowd's favourite.

"I felt like the crowd also cheered for me at the end of the match. So it was a nice moment."

Asked whether he felt bad for his opponent, Muller was justifiably focused on his own emotions and his own display.

"I didn't feel sorry, to be honest. I didn't feel like I had to apologize. Yeah, I mean, there's obviously a lot of emotions at the end."

Up next for Muller is seventh seed Marin Cilic, and the victor of that will face Andy Murray or 24th seed American Sam Querrey.

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