The Rafapocalypse

It was getting to be nighttime in London. Rafael Nadal had just dominated the fourth set of a second round match at Wimbledon. Everyone spectating at Center Court and watching on TV was shocked that Nadal was even involved in a fourth set, let alone that he needed to win just to stay alive and force a fifth set. Nadal doesn't have trouble with players in the second round of a tennis tournament. He hardly has trouble with the rest of the top 10. But there he was, hurting against Lukas Rozol, and then responding with a dominant set to force a fifth, like he always does. Forcing a fifth, that final set where most matches don't go, where most players lose gas but Nadal (and Djokovic) lose nothing. So we assumed it would just be an early match where Nadal got some trouble, but overcame it, won and then trounced his next four opponents.

But then something strange happened. With darkness coming in a little under an hour, the powers that be at the All-England club decided to halt the match before starting the fifth set so they could close the roof on Center Court and play an uninterrupted set. So the players waited for 45 minutes to play. Then, as seems to happen all the time in tennis, the player with the momentum was bested after the break. Rozol broke Nadal in the very first game of the set, and was never threatened with a break back. Nadal didn't even take him to deuce during a single service game. Rafa lost his earliest match at a Grand Slam event since 2005, when he was 19 and still only great on clay.

Nadal, the invincible competitor, was outplayed by Lukas Rozol. And it's not like it was an unlucky draw in the second round against an up-and-comer or a great grass court player. Rozol is 26 and has never even played in the main draw at Wimbledon until this year. In 2011, he was ousted in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying.

I don't know how to explain how this happened. The top four (and really six) men's tennis players have basically been invincible against the lesser players, to the point that it would have been boring if their matches against each other weren't fantastic. Rafa broke that spell, and not with a loss to somebody in the top 15 who played a great match when Rafa wasn't at his best. This loss was to a nobody. It doesn't make sense.

But I know how I would like to explain it. Rafael Nadal is still not an all-court player. His game has evolved an incredible amount over the years, but it still isn't the complete game that other players (ahem...Roger Federer) have displayed across every surface. His hustle and will have taken him beyond his pretty prodigious skill level.

That last paragraph, of course, is ridiculous. But when you think about the discussion for greatest players of all time, isn't this loss the type of thing that makes a difference? This type of thing hasn't been happening to Roger Federer over a much longer span of years. It hasn't happened to Djokovice in years. Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a bit of adversity today.

Rafa will be back. But today, there's only confusion.