Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic will both be out for redemption at Wimbledon when they face second-round opponents who have upset them previously at the All England Club.
Nadal ended his recent grass court woes by defeating Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in four sets, setting up an enticing second round showdown against Lukas Rosol, the man who famously upset the Spaniard at this stage two years ago.
Rosol earned his shot at Nadal after defeating France’s Benoit Paire in four sets
It was his defeat of Nadal at Wimbledon which caused serious ramifications as far as the bottom half of the draw was concerned.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray, projected quarter and semi-final opponents for Nadal respectively, both seized on his departure and went on to meet in the semi-finals, Murray eventually winning through to his first Wimbledon final, where he lost to Roger Federer in four sets.
Despite being ranked world number one, Nadal is seeded second due to his recent poor record on grass, crashing out on day one last year, twelve months after the aforementioned upset by Rosol in 2012.
It’s not the first time Nadal has been seeded second while ranked world number one – in 2010 Roger Federer was the top seed, having won Wimbledon in 2009 while Nadal was unable to defend his 2008 title due to a knee injury.
Nadal had reclaimed the world number one ranking from Federer just weeks earlier, after regaining his French Open crown from the man who dethroned him twelve months earlier, Robin Soderling.
Rosol’s defeat of Nadal would be the first of many things to come – he then won his first career title in Bucharest the following April, and this year was narrowly unsuccessful in defending it, losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the final.
As for Nadal, that defeat would mark the last time that he would hit a ball in anger, as continued knee problems saw him sidelined for the remainder of 2012.
He was later forced to withdraw from the US Open, where he was the champion in 2010 and finalist in 2011, and although fit enough to return in time for the 2013 Australian Open, another setback resulted in him missing that tournament.
He would then embark on the comeback of all comebacks, winning ten titles, including his eighth French Open title and second US Open title, and reclaimed the world number one ranking from Novak Djokovic.
He started this season by gaining some revenge by defeating Rosol in the first round of the Doha Open in January, on his way to winning the title there.
Now, two years on, Nadal will once again lock horns with Lukas Rosol in the second round of Wimbledon, and as in 2012, he will be the favourite to triumph and move onto the third round for the first time since 2011. The only major difference will be the current world rankings of the two men. Nadal is currently ranked first, while Rosol is currently ranked 50th, 52 places higher than when he upset the Spaniard two years ago.
On the women’s side, blocking Ana Ivanovic’s path to a possible third-round showdown against last year’s finaist Sabine Lisicki is China’s Zheng Jie, who in 2008 stunned the recently-crowned French Open champion and world number one in the third round. Zheng won through after defeating Germany’s Annika Beck in her first round match in straight sets.
Ivanovic had arrived at the All England Club that year full of confidence and fresh from her triumph in Paris, but nobody could have predicted what would happen in the third round.
Zheng, a Chinese wildcard whose injuries resulted in her ranking dropping to 133, came out all guns blazing and sent one of the pre-Wimbledon favourites crashing out with a straight-sets victory, 6-1, 6-4.
The Chinese’s momentum then carried her all the way to the semi-finals, where she eventually lost to Serena Williams. Her unexpected run to the final four meant that she became the first wildcard in Wimbledon history to get this far.
Six years on, Ivanovic and Zheng will meet for the first time on grass since the famous 2008 match, though this will be their first meeting overall since the 2010 US Open. On that occasion, Ivanovic gained revenge with a 6-3, 6-0 victory, as she resurrected her career after plummeting to as low as 65th in the world in July 2010.
Today the Serb finds herself ranked 11th in the world and with a huge chance to return to the top ten, enjoying her best season for a very long time. She has won three titles so far in 2014, tying her with Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova for the year. She claimed both their scalps at the Australian Open and in Rome, respectively, and currently leads the WTA for match wins this season with 38, just two off the mark she set overall last year (40).
With only a second-round appearance to defend from last year, Ivanovic is close to a return to the top ten for the first time in more than five years, but she will need a deep run and hope that Dominika Cibulkova loses early.
The Serb’s projected fourth-round opponent, Jelena Jankovic, crashed out after losing to Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi in her first round match, so her task is made a little bit easier.
However, Ivanovic must first get past Zheng Jie, which she should this time, and then possibly last year’s finalist Sabine Lisicki in the third round.
Ivanovic has already defeated Lisicki in Stuttgart earlier this year, while she has yet to play Kanepi. Recent Grand Slam form, however, suggests Ivanovic will have it tough trying to reach her first Wimbledon quarter-final since 2007.
Since winning the 2008 French Open, Ivanovic is 2-9 in Grand Slam fourth rounds, while Kanepi is undefeated when reaching this stage since making her debut at the 2006 French Open.
Ivanovic’s second round showdown against Zheng, as well as Nadal’s against Rosol, will undoubtedly be the pick of the second round matches.
Can the bigger names gain revenge for those humiliating defeats from years past, or will their nemeses repeat the dose?
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