Ivan Dodig shocks Rafael Nadal in the second round – Rogers Cup 2011
Sheer surprise for the tennis fans all over the globe, as the world number two, Rafael Nadal of Spain, crashed out of the second round of Rogers Cup, at the hands of 41st ranked Ivan Dodig of Croatia on Wednesday afternoon.
Being played on the hard courts of the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Canada, the contest featured one of the most surprising results of the tournament so far, with the second seeded Spaniard being outplayed in his very first match
of the event. The unseeded Croatian wrapped up victory at 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5), in the three-hour nine minute thriller to stun every person eye watching the contest all around the globe.
Dodig played exemplary tennis in the Wednesday’s contest to oust Nadal, who was playing his first match since his Wimbledon Championship loss to Novak Djokovic last month and failed to get his true spark in the game. The Croat
served brilliantly when needed in the matchup, executed some clean baseline hitting and cashed in his opportunities in the game to come out as the winner. The Spaniard failed to stand up to the task under intense pressure situations of the match and kept spilling
out opportunities to let his opponent take the better of him in the game.
“I don’t feel I played bad but in the decisive moments I didn’t play well,” Nadal told reporters after losing to Dodig, “He didn’t feel the pressure in the important moments and at the end of the match, probably I was a little
bit unlucky. I felt like I played well enough to win but that’s tennis.”
The Spaniard took the opening set with his typical aggressive fashion, blowing away the Croat at 6-1 but Dodig dug deep in the following set, dragging the set into the tie breaker round after a trade of serve breaks from both side.
Dodig wrapped up the second set at 7-6(5), in the tie breaker and then replicated the similar feat in the final set as well to register a memorable victory in the second round of Montreal Masters.
It was the first time that Dodig has beaten Nadal one-on-one, with Nadal having a victory over the Croat earlier this season at Barcelona, in the semi-final of the tournament. Dodig’s victory was the 21st one of the
current year and it levelled his head-to-head record against the Spaniard at 1-1.
Up next for Dodig is the unseeded Serb contestant, Janko Tipsarevic, who won his match against the 15 seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain to book a date with the Croat for a place in the quarter-finals.
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