Nadal’s disappointment at this year’s exit was greater than his previous three eliminations, he said after the defeat.
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It was a painful, embarrassing mistake, symbolic of the sort of day Nadal was having.
Watson, who is ranked 59th in the world, has never reached round four at the All England Club before but the 23-year-old is in no doubt she can topple the all-conquering American.
Nadal says that come what may, he will always be proud of his Wimbledon record.
“On this surface, when I go out there, obviously I’m confident that I can play my game”, Brown said.
“I had actually never been on Centre Court before”, said Brown.
Brown, 30, was born in Germany to a Jamaican father – whose face is tattooed on Brown’s stomach – and a German mother. They moved to Jamaica when he was 12 and returned to Europe about a decade ago.
“Whatever I do is to take him out of his comfort zone”. He hit serves at up to 133 miles per hour (215 kph).
“This year I was ready to compete well and I was playing well before that tournament”, he said. He earned two match points in the ninth game of the fourth set that Nadal was able to save, but then closed out the dramatic encounter with astounding serving.
His hair, his style, his look – everything about Brown is considered unorthodox.
Unconventional, brilliantly original, Brown brought a streak of colour and verve to the evening match and with more drop shots and half volleys in the first set than you would see in a week of Wimbledon, his unpredictability and idiosyncratic game confounded the 14 times Grand Slam victor Nadal.
And after suffering a beatdown at the hands of Novak Djokovic at the French Open last month (a tournament Nadal has won nine times, including the last five prior to this year), the question can be raised: Is this the end of Rafael Nadal? Even though he is a two-time Wimbledon champion, he has not made it past the fourth round in any of the past three, now four, Wimbledons.
Speaking on his BBC Radio Five Six-Love-Six programme: “Rafael Nadal is one of the great champions – a class act”.
He advanced with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 triumph over America’s Sam Querrey, while sixth seed Tomas Berydch of the Czech Republic also progressed, beating France’s Nicolas Mahut 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.
Tsonga of France beat Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-3 6-4 6-4, Berdych beat Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-1 6-4 and Monfils, also of France, was a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5 victor over compatriot Adrian Mannarin.
Wimbledon has shocked the world again as another high profile name has been eliminated from the grass court tournament. I got lucky. I hit it perfectly.
While Nadal slumped out, the other big names sailed through to the third round.
“It just happened to be the right thing but if you don’t win the point you do look a little bit silly”, he said.
It was another miserable moment in a troubled season for Nadal, who has won just two tour titles all year and failed to go past the quarter-finals at any grand slam event.
Defending women’s champion Petra Kvitova was on Court 1 against Japan’s Kurumi Nara.
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“It’s probably the best day of my life so far”.
