Wimbledon has shocked the world again as another high profile name has been eliminated from the grass court tournament.
Rafael Nadal was defeated 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to largely unknown Dustin Brown of Germany in a tense four set battle.
Astonishingly, this marks Nadal’s exit of Wimbledon for the third time in four years, a tournament he won twice in 2008 and 2012.
More preposterously, this is the Spaniard’s fourth straight loss to an opponent outside the the top 100, and the third time he exited Wimbledon within the first week.
The dreadlocked and Jamaican descent Brown, who hails from Germany and is currently ranked as world no 102, gave Nadal no space to breathe right at the start of the match, his throwback serve-and-volley tactics was vindicated as Nadal could not relax and was visibly out of his famous rhythm and aggressive playing style.
To his defence, Nadal has been struggling for form and has had multiple injuries. Psychologically, this may have affected Nadal considering his recent disastrous record in Wimbledon.
Brown also defeated Nadal last year in their own meeting but he was not the first player outside the top 100 to defeat Nadal in Wimbledon. Nick Kyrgios defeated the Spaniard last year while Steve Darcis and Lukas Rosol both shocked Nadal in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
“I’m happy I got to play him on that court win or lose,” said Brown as quoted by The Guardian, who was clearly euphoric after his victory.
“All the kids that play tennis dream about being able to play on that Centre Court. Playing against him there is special. Also being able to put that performance together, it was definitely very difficult and I’m very happy that I held it together for the whole match.”
Meanwhile, though he was disappointed with his performance and the manner of the defeat, the currently world no 10 vowed to not give up and to continue fighting to solidify his profile as one of the most feared opponents in the world.
“So I lost. Sad today for that, obviously,
“But that’s sport. Good moments, bad moments. Obviously today is a bad moment for me. I just need to accept these kind of things can happen. I did that all my career.
“I will keep going. It’s not the end. Life continues and my career, too. I have to keep going and working more than ever to try to change that dynamic.”
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