Ferrer dashes Nadal’s ‘Rafa Slam’ dream

David Ferrer (R) ended Rafael Nadal’s quest for an historic fourth consecutive Grand Slam title as he beat the world No.1 in the Australian Open quarters.

Rafael Nadal’s bid to win four straight Grand Slam tournaments ended when he lost his Australian Open quarterfinal 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer on Wednesday.

An injured Nadal, who appeared to have tears in his eyes during a changeover while trailing 3-0 in the third set, took a medical timeout for an apparent leg injury after three games and was clearly out of sorts, failing to chase down balls that he would ordinarily return easily.

“This is a difficult day for me,” Nadal said, adding that he preferred to not talk about the nature of the injury. “Today I can’t do more than what I did; he played at a very high level.”

When pressed about the injury, Nadal added - “I don’t have to tell you what I felt on the court, but it is obvious I did not feel at my best. I had a problem with the match at the very beginning, and after that, the match was almost over.”

It was the second year in a row he lost in the quarterfinals here due to injury - in 2010 he retired against Andy Murray due to a right knee ailment that kept him off the tour for two months, again on the Australia Day national holiday.

“This is one big victory for me, but it’s not like a victory really,” seventh-seeded Ferrer said after the match.

Nadal, who didn’t bother chasing the winner on match point, won last year’s French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open and was trying to add the Australian title so he could hold all four major trophies at once. That hasn’t been achieved since Rod Laver won four in a row in 1969.

The fireworks that would have lit up the tennis world had Nadal won his fourth in a row came on Wednesday night during the match - Australia Day celebrations forced a 10-minute interruption while the sky outside Rod Laver was lit up by a pyrotechnics show.

As the fireworks exploded, Nadal changed his shirt and briefly left the stadium. He came back a couple of minutes later and took off his right shoe and fidgeted with his toes and sock.

After losing the second set, the usually fidgety Nadal slumped in his chair at the changeover, completely still with his head bent.

The crowd cheered almost exclusively for Nadal - “Come on, Rafa,” - they roared, while often applauding Ferrer’s errors. All, eventually, for nothing.