{"id":25801,"date":"2020-06-04T12:21:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T16:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=25801"},"modified":"2020-06-04T12:21:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T16:21:55","slug":"rafael-nadals-nightmare-wimbledon-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/06\/04\/rafael-nadals-nightmare-wimbledon-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal\u2019s nightmare Wimbledon run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rafael Nadal is a 19-time Grand Slam champion, including a two-time Wimbledon winner but between 2012 and 2015 he suffered a series of embarrassing defeats at the All England Club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Lukas Rosol beat Rafael Nadal 6-7 (9-11) 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 &#8211; Wimbledon 2012 second round<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/678015508\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 79.79797% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/678015508?et=1Ma1OM72TSlqd5G3C9ja6w&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=W4qMOglfow5Xem_7pyl09ywzBte2rNrZt0Geh7RCQrg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"474\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal came into this year\u2019s Wimbledon as the second seed and on a run of 11 consecutive major quarter-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His recent record on the grass had been almost flawless with five final appearances in the last five years he had competed, with victories in 2008 and 2010.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast Rosol was ranked number 100 and this marked his debut Wimbledon having lost in the first round of qualifying on his five previous attempts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Czech had yet to reach the third round of a slam but had achieved a career high ranking of 65 the year before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal had a comfortable first round victory over Thomaz Bellucci while Rosol gained his maiden win at the grass court slam over Ivan Dodig.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Spaniard, as expected, claimed the opening set but was made to work, sealing it 11-9 in a tie-break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rosol continued to inflict his power game on Nadal and levelled the match, 6-4 in the second set and this style of play enabled him to take a two sets to one lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, perhaps the enormity of the situation got to the underdog and Nadal broke twice to force a decider.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By now, light was fading and there was a 43 minute break to close the Centre Court roof.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rosol was undeterred on the resumption, immediately breaking Nadal and stood on the brink of a famous win, serving at 5-4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Usually in this situation there are understandable nerves but the Czech made a mockery of this with a ridiculous display of serving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His last game points won are as follows: ace, forehand winner, ace, ace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This marked the first time Nadal had lost before the third round of a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2005.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rosol met 27th seed Phillip Kohlschreiber in the third round but it was a case of after the Lord Mayor\u2019s show as he fell to a straight sets defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Steve Darcis beat Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 &#8211; Wimbledon 2013 first round<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/851350340\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 68.68687% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/851350340?et=RxHAZIJdTN5oxSMioKLJMg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=FTMF8s0vOSEBMg9f0ZmDXUdUKq2MVGeKIwLBw1tZkKI=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"408\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal returned to SW19 the following year having not played a competitive grass court match since his shock loss the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He had, however, claimed a seventh French Open crown in the only Grand Slam he had played since Wimbledon the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Steve Darcis was ranked even lower than Rosol, at 135 with his best Grand Slam result seeing him reach the third round at the 2011 French Open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal had obvious struggles on the different surface with Darcis claiming the opening set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He saved four set points in a second set tie-break but squandered one of his one as the Belgian claimed a two sets lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Darcis broke the Spaniard in the opening game of the third set before holding to seal a famous victory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was the first time Nadal had lost in the first round of a slam and he became the first reigning Roland Garros champion to lose in the first round of Wimbledon since Gustavo Kuerten in 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Darcis however, pulled out of his second round match citing a shoulder injury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Nick Kyrgios beats Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 &#8211; Wimbledon 2014 fourth round<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/700420754\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 68.35017% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/700420754?et=ePB8XCuJTZhOmpJhxhSqKQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=58qqobf1DzaIZXGuCcJ7c45LmbiSgBGV-reKTX0zDXM=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"406\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal had bounced back from his last shock Wimbledon defeat by winning the US Open and French Open, either side of reaching the Australian Open and was the world No.1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast, Kyrgios was just 19 and ranked 144 and only gained entry to the Championships as a wildcard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For his first three rounds, the Spaniard lost the first set but recovered to win in four, including a second round victory over his 2012 conqueror Rosol.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kyrgios also had an eventful first few matches with two four-set victories either side of an impressive performance against Richard Gasquet, coming from two sets down and saving nine match points to seal his first top-50 scalp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The big serving Australian stunned the Centre Court crowd by winning a first set tie-break on his third set point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kyrgios hit a stunning winner between his legs in the second set and approached another tie-break without having lost a point on serve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, this run ended at 6-5 down, when after saving a set point, a forehand foud the net as Nadal levelled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The third set continued in the same vein in this tight encounter but the teenager slammed home a forehand winner in a second tie-break to stand one set away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It looked that the match would not go the distance as Kyrgios broke for 3-1 with a couple of stunning backhands and typically his biggest ever win was confirmed with ace number 37.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This made the Australian the first outside the top 100 to beat a world number one at a Grand Slam since Jim Courier&#8217;s loss to world number 193 Andrei Olhovskiy at Wimbledon in 1992.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Dustin Brown beats Rafael Nadal 7-5 3-6 6-4 6-4 &#8211; Wimbledon 2015 second round<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/583613230\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 70.53873% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/583613230?et=QHuLsJVxSJhEQP2E7EKCwg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=_1uC4f52QcM0Lwpm-awSaMpKmLaBCDDggnfLvyKKXkg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"419\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Spaniard returned to the All England Club the next year in a slump, having failed to reach a major semi-final in the intervening period including losing his first French Open since 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brown had come through qualifying, being ranked 102, but had not dropped a set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking to finally put this horror run of Wimbledon losses behind him, Nadal had beaten Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets in the first round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The German-Jamaican Brown lost his first set to Yen-hsun Lu but had recovered to win in four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The dreadlocked underdog had already beaten Nadal in their only other meeting on the grass of Halle the year before and he fired 20 winners to take the first set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadal broke twice in the second set to comfortably level the match and it seemed as though he would go on to dominate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the all-round game of Brown proved difficult for the Spaniard and another trip to the net, one of 89 in total saw him grab the crucial break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By now Nadal\u2019s fearsome forehand was misfiring and he just had to hope Brown was feeling the after effects of his five-set doubles match the day before or a case of nerves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It seemed Brown was nervous when he missed a volley on match point with Nadal saving a second with an ace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brown was forced to serve it out but showed no pressure as he sealed it with an ace of his own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The feat could not be repeated in the next round as Brown lost in four sets to Viktor Troicki.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/851369564\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/851369564?et=xvC6kM4dRuBPL9JWWn0YsA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=8tB_htu3HMsv4dsb-QhOuq6BZMmkTm8SKX3WN1AkOIg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rafael Nadal is a 19-time Grand Slam champion, including a two-time Wimbledon winner but between 2012 and 2015 he suffered a series of embarrassing defeats at the All England Club. Lukas Rosol beat Rafael Nadal 6-7 (9-11) 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 &#8211; Wimbledon 2012 second round Embed from Getty Images Nadal came into this year\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":25807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,2],"tags":[11439,11440,11441,11442,1411,1339,209,135,243,2067,21,11445],"class_list":["post-25801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wimbledon","category-atp","category-featured","tag-2012-wimbledon","tag-2013-wimbledon","tag-2014-wimbledon","tag-2015-wimbledon","tag-dustin-brown","tag-lukas-rosol","tag-nick-kyrgios","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-spanish-tennis","tag-steve-darcis","tag-wimbledon","tag-wimbledon-history"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}