World Tennis #100 beats #2 – Nadal out of Wimbledon 2012 early in shock defeat

29 June 2012, Wimbledon London, ENGLAND

Before the second round Wimbledon match betwen Nadal and Rosol, you would have gotten betting odds of 100-1 for the No. 100-ranked Czech Rosol to crush the 2012 Wimbledon dreams of world #2 Rafa Nadal. But would you have put the bet on?

By the second set it was apparent that Nadal wasn’t going for his usual ‘walk in the park’: Rafa chased a drop shot before stumbling and tumbling into the net while his racked flew into the sideline. Despite getting to his unsteady feet to cheers of the crowd – this was a sign of things to come – with Nadal making his earliest Grand slam exit in six years! What an upset!
Nadal was expected to reach the final – heck he had reached the final in the past FIVE Grand Slam tournaments, and had played in the final of his past five Wimbledons.

The 25 year old Czech Lukas Rosol (ranked 100) earned the biggest win of his tennis career 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

As dusk approached , the new Wimbledon retractable roof was pulled shut for a final set on Centre Court. This upset on one of tennis’ biggest stages was no flash in the pan: Rosol played out of his skin, serving well, and delivering powerful baseline groundstrokes, while the Spaniard found himself pinned deep and on the defensive.

GAME OVER

Rosol finished the job by serving to deliver his 22nd ace of the match. dropping to his knees, arms raised and then collapsing on the famous grass of Center court. He then gathered himself then got up to shake hands at the net with a frowning Nadal.

“I think I was better today a little bit,” Rosol said.