By Randy Walker
Unknown tennis player Lukas Rosol, the No. 100 ranked player in the world, posted one of the most shocking upsets in major tennis history Thursday, shell-shocking No.2 seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon.
Rosol battered winners from all corners of the court in a pristine example of fearless, go-for-broke tennis in his 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 upset on Centre Court.
In the fifth set of the gripping upset – which was played after a 40-minute delay to close the Centre Court roof in order to finish the match under the lights – the 26-year old Czech fired 20 winners, including seven aces against only two errors. When serving for the massive upset, Rosol closed out the match at love, firing a forehand winner then two aces on the last three points. He hit 22 aces in the match and won 83 percent of points when he got his first serve in.
“I can’t believe what I just witnessed,” said John McEnroe on ESPN2. Countered ESPN2’s Chris Fowler, “Nadal has never had a more stunning loss.”
“I never expected anything like this, Rosol said post-match with the BBC. “I am speechless. It was my best match ever. It means so much to me.”
Rosol, from the Czech city of Brno, had never won a match at Wimbledon prior to his first-round win over Ivan Dodig of Croatia. The last five years at Wimbledon, Rosol had lost in the first round of QUALIFYING for The Championships. His first-ever grass court match win came only last week at the ATP event in Eastbourne.
By contrast, Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon champion, is fresh off winning his 11th career major singles title at the French Open two-and-a-half weeks ago– tying him with Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg for fourth all-time in men’s tennis history, behind only Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Roy Emerson. His loss to the No. 100-ranked opponent marked the lowest-ranking of any player he had ever lost to a major tennis tournament. It equaled his earliest Wimbledon lost since he was defeated by Gilles Muller in the second round in 2005.
“When the match started, I said it was David versus Goliath and look who stepped up,” said McEnroe. “It was an inspirational performance and it makes you realize that’s why you play the game. You never know what is going to happen. That is why they play the game.”
Of Nadal, Rosol said to the BBC, “He is a superstar. I am sorry for him. I played unbelievable today.”
“At the end of the day, he had more energy than Rafael Nadal,” said Fowler. “He challenged him every step of the way and stepped up like nobody could have imagined.”
“It was remarkable display of fearless tennis from Rosol,” said Patrick McEnroe, also on ESPN2. “He just went for it and it went in.”
Patrick McEnroe went on the characterize the upset as a “monumental shift” for the tournament as it opens up the bottom half of the men’s draw for someone to come through and reach the Wimbledon final other than Novak Djokovic, Federer and Nadal. The key benefactor is likely Britain’s Andy Murray, the No. 4 seed who is in Nadal’s half of the draw, who is attempting to become the first British men’s champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. No. 5 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 10 seed Mardy Fish also have an opening to sneak into the men’s semifinals on the bottom half. Also lurking as an outsider in the bottom half of the draw is three-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick, seeded No. 30. Defending champion Djokovic is seeded No. 1 and in the top have of the draw, where he could meet Federer, the No. 3 seed and six-time champion, in the semifinals.
Patrick McEnroe went on to describe the loss for Nadal as merely a “hiccup.”