By Jan Kodes
It was unbelievable to see my fellow Czech Lukas Rosol beat Rafael Nadal in the second round Wimbledon. I did think he had it in him to win a match like this – and he finally did it!
Lukas is a very dangerous player for anybody to play with his hard-hitting serve and groundstrokes and his good physical abilities. He is not afraid of anybody – as was showcased against Rafa – and he always plays with his hard-hitting, aggressive game. His confidence has grown immensely the last two years, but he was still consistently losing matches because of his risky style of play. He can still reach a much higher ranking (he is ranked No. 100 right now) and this win will help a lot.
I am very happy for him since he has always been in the shadow of Tomas Berdych in the Czech Republic. In my opinion, he should play at No. 2 singles in Davis Cup already for the last two years, but the Czech Tennis Federation did not support him and believed more in Radek Stepanek and his experience. I hope this will change too soon.
Lukas is from Prerov (Moravia) but he has been practicing more in Prague lately at our club. He likes to receive advice from people and I saw him and spoke to him just before he left for Wimbledon. His coach is Ctislav Dosedel, a former good Czech pro player based on Prerov. Lukas is 26 years old and the same age as Tomas Berdych, but he could not break through earlier in his career like Tomas did. He did have a good win last year at the French Open, beating Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who was seeded.
Against Rafa, Lukas did everything right. No long rallies and exchanges – he just overpowered Rafa totally. He showed no respect for Rafa on the court and there was not much that Rafa could do.
Lukas served hard and went for winners immediately – this worked well and Rafa was late with his defense. We saw some great drop shots too – which worked very well because Rafa was too far behind the baseline.
With this performance, Lukas can beat anybody – especially when his serve goes in! This is grass and, as you can see, the grass can still be fast if you play the right way and you are not afraid to go for it! It’s also important to go to the net to hit winning volleys like Adriano Pannata did on clay against Bjorn Borg when he beat him en route to winning Roland Garros back in 1976.
I am not sure if Rafa was well-prepared for this match and if he knew much about Lukas’ game, because he did not read his game too well, especially the serve. Rafa was often late on his returns and his percentage was too low. Lukas often started his service games by serving to Rafa’s backhand to take him out of the court!
Nadal was shaken at the start of the fifth set when he lost his serve in the first game. That should not have happened to him. Sometimes, one break is a key, especially in the final set.
I wish more players would play the game that Lukas Rosol played against Rafa. Will this be something that we will see more of? We shall see…
Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the book A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that documents the history of tennis in the Czech Republic. The book features an incredible array of historic and never seen before photos and many anecdotes and stories about Czech players including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and many others. It is available for purchase here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320242085&sr=1-1)