Wow, wow wow! I am still stunned. Anyone who knows anything about tennis has got to be reeling with the news that not only is Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon, but that he lost in the 2nd round to someone ranked #100. I mean, seriously, I was only planning to give halfhearted attention to the match because I thought it would be an incredibly routine win. If someone would have told me this morning the results of the day I would have told them they were crazy!
We will see what transpires over the next week or so, if it turns out Rafa was nursing an injury that he hadn't shared, or some such thing. He was obviously unnerved during the match, arguing with the umpire about Rosol's movement on court while Rafa was serving (or was it he was breathing too loud - I heard both stories), or bumping into him on the way to the change over, not to mention keeping him waiting in between serves. But what it simply came down to is that Lukas Rosol played amazingly clutch tennis, never giving into nerves, and simply hitting the two time champion, three time finalist off Wimbledon's Center Court.
I was completely bracing myself in that last service game for the nerves to hit, as so often happens to lower ranked players when trying to close out a match against a top guy. Instead Rosol played an absolutely amazing game, hitting his spots on serve, making the forehead winner, and not giving Nadal even a sniff at breaking him. Again, wow! As to what happens from here, it seems often in these cases that the spoiler has given so much of himself to win the big match that he has nothing left in his next one. And who knows if Philip Kohlschreiber is feeling relief or disappointment to not have another shot at Rafa, being the last one to beat him just a couple weeks ago. But regardless, Nadal is no longer part of the picture when trying to predict the Wimbledon winner. I'm sure Andy Murray is having very pleasant dreams tonight, as his road to potentially make his first Wimbledon final just got a heck of a lot easier!
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