THE CHAMPIONSHIPS, WIMBLEDON
[CR10] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. [CR102] Dustin Brown (GER)
Nadal suffered another early round loss at Wimbledon. It was not unexpected; yet, I hoped that he would find a way to get by Brown. However, the odds were stacked against him. He had lost to Brown on grass in their previous encounter; he has not been playing well; he started off today by losing the first set; and he has had a string of inexplicable losses at Wimbledon dating back to 2012. In 2012, he lost in the second round to [RT100] Lukas Rosol. In 2013, he lost in the first round to [RT135] Steve Darcis. Although he got a tad farther in 2014, he lost to [RT144] Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round.
Did Brown play exceptional tennis? I would say he played the same way he has always played. He goes for his shots, sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. He can also frustrate his opponents with his funky shots and at times his very casual demeanor leaves them befuddled. Today was no exception. He frustrated Nadal and left him looking lost on Centre Court. When you play with confidence anything can happen. Brown proved that today with his 75, 36, 64, 64 defeat of Nadal. Will Brown make it to the second week or will he lose in the next round as countless others have done after toppling a much higher ranked player in their previous round?
Since it’s not unusual for Nadal to get booted from the courts at Wimbledon early on, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I, too, hoped that he would at least make it to week two. However, in light of recent events and Nadal’s fall from grace, it is still disheartening. Brown made some good shots but Nadal’s shots are just so far off the mark these days. Missed shots, double faults; this is NOT Rafael Nadal. I don’t know when, how or if he will be able to recover from this latest slump. Where does he go from here? How will he prepare himself for the hard court season and the US Open?? Again, Brown did make some great funky shots. I’d really like to see him play the likes of Gael Monfils. That should be a hoot!!
Those are questions only Nadal can answer. Perhaps he would benefit from one of those extended breaks that has rejuvenated his game in the past. As for a match between Gael Monfils and Dustin Brown, that would be a highly entertaining event for the fans. I would be curious to see who would win their first encounter.
I was very disappointed that the end came so soon. I was not surprised that Nadal did not win. He had an awful start – perhaps fatigue was a major contributing factor to his loss. I am not sure of the reason(s) for him not winning, because in my opinion, Brown seemed to play without additional efforts, which I was hoping that Nadal would have capitalized on. Next time Nadal.