Rafael Nadal Upset in Second Round at Wimbledon

Written by: Staff on 29th June 2012

Rafael Nadal Upset in Second Round at Wimbledon

epa03286892 Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts as he plays Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic during their second round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 28 June 2012. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

Even on a scale of Wimbledon upsets that included lowly ranked Australian Peter Doohan beating Boris Becker 25 years ago, Switzerland’s journeyman George Bastl ending Pete Sampras’ glorious reign at the All England Club and Ivo Karlovic ruining Lleyton Hewitt’s title defence in the first round nine years ago, 100th ranked Lukas Rosol’s Centre Court destruction of two times champion Rafael Nadal was huge.

However the normally magnanimous Nadal was angered by some of the victorious Czech’s antics in a match that extended to a fifth set under the closed Centre Court roof after daylight faded in south-west London .

Rosol fired 22 aces, hit breathtaking ground strokes timed at close to 100mph and repeatedly stared at his illustrious opponent. At the other end Nadal repeatedly complained to the umpire that he was being distracted when trying to serve by Rosol jumping around.

Bad feeling between the two players came to a head when Nadal appeared to blatantly bodycheck Rosol at a change of end. “He wanted to take my concentration,” said Rosol. “I knew that he will try something,” ‘I was surprised that he can do it on the Centre Court . It’s, like, something wrong.”

For Nadal it was a first second round defeat in a Grand Slam event since 2005 and ended his record of reaching both the last five Wimbledon finals and the last five major finals.

“’That’s happens when you play against a player who is able to hit the ball very hard, hit the ball without thinking and feeling the pressure,”said the second seed from Majorca who won his seventh French Open title esrlier this month. ”At the end, when the opponent wants to play like he wanted to play in the fifth (set), you are in his hands, no? Everything was going right for him.”

But Nadal questioned whether it was correct to delay the match for 45 minutes while the Centre Court roof was closed to allow sufficient flood lighting. “’Completely new stadium, with new roof, so the normal thing is cover the roof in five to ten minutes,” he said.

But in parting Nadal reworked a theme used by Becker when he lost early in his title defence to Doohan a quarter of a century ago. Back then Becker said: “I lost a tennis match. Nobody died.” The 2012 version came from Nadal: “It’s not a tragedy. Only a tennis match.”

Topics: 10sBallls.com, All England Club, Boris Becker, Lukas Rosol, Peter Doohan, Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon