Dustin Brown and his waist-length dancing dreadlocks were taking a bow on Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Thursday after handing Rafa Nadal yet another shattering defeat on the most famous stage in tennis.
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LONDON (AP) – The curse of beating Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon has struck again.
It was a painful, embarrassing mistake, symbolic of the sort of day this was. Every time he did it he sent a ripple of delight through the crowd. All four were ranked outside the top 100 in the world.
“It’s not the end”, Nadal said. “My career, too”.
Brown used to save money by travelling to tournaments in a camper van and stringing rivals’ rackets, and while those days now appear long gone, he suggested his £77,000 consolation for losing in the Wimbledon third round will not go far.
“I had nothing to lose”. “Brown is due back on the circuit, first in Germany and then in Rhode Island for the sole post-Wimbledon grasscourt tour-level event”.
But the offspring of a German mother and Jamaican father showed no signs of freaking out. Around that time, his parents bought him an RV so he could drive from tournament to tournament. Or, frankly, even now?
Before Wimbledon, Vandeweghe had not been past the third round of any major.
Bad light stopped play on Court One just past 9pm but the action moved to the vacant Centre Court, with the roof shut and lights on.
The 23rd-seeded Karlovic won 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (9) to reach the fourth round for the third time.
The list does not include Rory McIlroy, who ruptured a ligament in his left ankle while playing soccer, a week before the start of his British Open title defense.
Consider, too, Nadal’s history at Wimbledon.
Isner beat Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set in that epic match five years ago.
“So I don’t know how it will turn out, but I have a chance, for sure”. In 2013, he lost to No. 135 Steve Darcis in the first. Last year, Kyrgios lost to Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals.
Brown chugged around the globe to play in the sport’s minor competitions, struggling to pay for entry fees, petrol and food and he even invested in his own stringing machine, so he could fix other players’ rackets for around €5 a go.
O’Shannessy had also told Brown to return down the line while receiving serve in the deuce court because Nadal tends to run around his backhand to leave “a monster hole” ready to exploit.
Groth hit the serve at 1-1, 30-all in the first set against the seven-time champion. “No-one will ever be able to take that away from me,”.
Most importantly, he never let up.
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Brown, 30, said he wanted to push Nadal into areas of the court where he didn’t want to be. “He served and volleyed once and I was like, ‘Uh oh, I hope we don’t see more of this.’ Well, we didn’t”.
