After spending several months on the sidelines before storming back to clinch a record eighth French Open title earlier this month, Wimbledon wasn’t supposed to go like this for Rafael Nadal.
Despite boasting the most impressive form-line of any player at the tournament and having his name etched into the record books at the hallowed competition, Nadal was once again eliminated in the opening rounds.
Unlike last year, where his thrilling five-set defeat in the second round to Lukas Rosol was clouded with injury concerns, there would be no hiding for Nadal this year.
His opponent – Steve Darcis – wasn’t ranked inside the top 100 players in the world and wasn’t given even the slightest of chances to take down the Spanish international and former Wimbledon champion.
And nor should he.
According to the statistics gurus, Darcis is the lowest ranked player that Nadal has lost to in any tournament since the 2006 Stockholm Open. Nadal has won Wimbledon and beaten all the major players (Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray) on grass courts throughout this career so far.
By all accounts, he should have won this one without leaving second gear.
And while attention will no doubt turn to Nadal and why grass (and Wimbledon, in particular) have caused him such troubles of late, the biggest question is as to what impact the Spaniard’s loss will have on the tournament this year.
Firstly, the most obvious impact is a serious boost to the chances of the other Big 3. All are former finalists of the competition with both Djokovic and Federer tasting success at the All-England club, and with Nadal now out of the picture, their chances at taking out the title have received some very good fortune.
Federer perhaps stands to benefit the most given that he could potentially have drawn Nadal as early as the quarter-finals. Murray could have seen him in the semi-finals while Djokovic would not have met him until the final, but all are obvious winners simply for the fact that now, they cannot meet the wiry Spaniard.
Yet outside of those obvious selections, Nadal’s absence also has a serious affect on several other players in the men’s draw this year.
No. 18 seed John Isner – who was famously part of the longest match in history at Wimbledon in 2010 – now finds himself with a great chance to progress through to at least the quarterfinals now. His big serve is a great fit with the quick grass courts at the tournament this year and he will be very tough to beat this year. No. 25 seed Benoit Paire finds himself in a similar position with Nadal out of the way.
One of the biggest shock winners of the Nadal is defeat is in fact Lleyton Hewitt.
The Australian legend might be past his best tennis but still played an incredibly strong match to upset No. 11 seed Stanislas Wawrinka in his opening round matchup.
Wawrinka has been in tremendous form all year and marks an incredible upset for Hewitt – one that he can now capitalise on by not facing a player ranked inside the top 15 until the quarterfinals at the very earliest.
Time will tell which players are able to succeed the most now that Nadal’s quadrant is without its top-ranked player, but there are certainly no shortage of players who will be trying to do so.
For mine, Isner is looming as a serious quarterfinal threat while the likes of Nicolas Almagro and Federer will also be thanking their lucky stars that their draw is seemingly wide open for the taking.
And anything that helps Lleyton along; well, that can’t be such a bad thing, can it?
I guess we’ll know soon enough.
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