This is the fourth consecutive year in which Nadal has been seen off on the SW19 lawns by a player ranked 100 or lower in the world. “He’s one of the best players in the game with his uncle Toni who has been with him for his entire career”.
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The 36-year-old Karlovic is the oldest man to make it that far at Wimbledon since fellow Croatian Niki Pilic in 1976.
But he was unable to follow up his famous triumph and fell 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-3 to the 29-year-old Serb.
Nadal’s departure removed the 14-time grand slam champion from the side of the draw occupied by Roger Federer and Britain’s Andy Murray and both were in third round action Saturday.
The third-round match ended shortly before 10:30 p.m. after it was moved from Court 1 because of bad light during the fourth set.
“You have to play your A game against him”.
“This is tough in a tournament which is special for me”, Kvitova said.
But going out in the second round at Wimbledon against unranked Dustin Brown in only four sets is something no one saw coming.
LONDON (Reuters) – Dread-locked German Dustin Brown was nowhere to be seen at Wimbledon on Friday, at least into the early afternoon, but his shock upset of Rafa Nadal the night before remained the talk of the tournament.
He lost to Federer in the 2006 and 2007 finals, then beat him 9-7 in the fifth set of the epic 2008 final.
Troicki, who returned to tennis a year ago, right after Wimbledon, after serving a 12-month ban for refusing to take a doping test, was in phenomenal form against Brown as he fired a jaw-dropping 59 winners to just 13 unforced errors and dropped just 12 points on his first serve over the course of the four sets. Federer didn’t return it, but he managed to get some racket on it, making it a service victor instead of an ace.
It narrowly missed the Wimbledon record of 148 miles per hour (238 kph) set by Taylor Dent against Novak Djokovic in 2010.
Brown’s unpredictable tennis could not get him past the solidly dependable Viktor Troicki in the following round.
It proved to be the flawless drop shot with the Serbian 22nd seed having no chance of retrieving the ball.
A netted Troicki volley gave Brown the break and a lifeline at the start of the second but Troicki hit back immediately, before storming clear in the tie-break as Brown’s bold serve-and-volley tactics broke down under pressure.
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Since reaching the fourth round in 2010, Jankovic had lost in the first round three times and made the second round in 2013.
