Who would be the happiest tennis player on Rafael Nadal’s Wimbledon loss? – Tennis News
When Rafael Nadal was drawn to meet the 100th ranked, Lukas Rosol, in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships, none of the millions of tennis followers around the world would have expected that the second seed
would lose to such a lower ranked player at an early stage of a Grand Slam.
However, our believe in the fact that nothing is impossible in this world got further strengthened, as the two-time former champion, Nadal, lost to a minnow on the ATP World Tour in five sets 7-6(9), 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 4-6 to bow out
of the biggest event in the tennis calendar.
Nadal was visibly upset after the loss, as he said, “I am very, very disappointed. Sure, I’m not very happy. In the end is a second round match. It’s not the semifinals or the final, so that bothers [me] more, because then you
feel that you had the chance to win the title.”
The Spanish star added, “I’m not going to say in the point of my career today the only thing that going to work for me is the victory, but more or less. So I was very far to win the tournament. I just was in the second round.
That's painful, because it’s always tough to lose.”
Now the question arises that who would be the happiest player, among the ones currently participating at this year’s Wimbledon, on Nadal’s exit?
There would be many players who would have felt relieved after Nadal got beaten, as this will increase their chances to go further in the tournament. The Spaniard’s exit has opened up the lower half of the draw, as his presence
would have stopped any new player from making it the finals.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was expected to meet Nadal in the quarter-finals, would be quite happy on his ouster, as he has escaped one of the best players the sport has ever seen.
Even Nadal’s two arch rivals in the upper half of the draw, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, would have had a sigh of relief, as they would not have to battle the 11-time Grand Slam champion in the final.
However, in my opinion, the happiest player in this situation would be Great Britain’s number one player, Andy Murray. The Brit has lost to Nadal at the last four-stage in the last two editions of Wimbledon. The three-time Major
finalist was unable to solve the Rafa riddle at the grass courts of All England Club. He used to thrash his opponents on his way to the semi-finals but could not get past the Spaniard.
When the draws of 2012 Wimbledon Championships came out, all the British fans had their heads in their hands, when they got to know that Murray was slated to face Nadal in the semi-finals once again.
It looked like history was repeating itself, as Britain’s former top player, Tim Henman, used to face the same fate at the hands of seven-time former champion, Pete Sampras.
In his prime, Henman was one of the top grass court players on the ATP World Tour but never managed to advance to the title match at his home Grand Slam event, going down four times in the semis and two of them were against Sampras.
Coming back to Murray, the 25-year-old should now face a far easier opponent in the semi-finals in the shape of the fifth seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. On the other hand, Djokovic and Federer will bring out the juice from
each other when they lock horns in the other semi-final. If Murray gets through to the title match, he would face a fatigued opponent there.
Murray and his British fans can raise their hopes now that the former would break the 76 years drought of a home champion at the Wimbledon Championships and become the first player from his country to grab crown at the All England
Club since Fred Perry in 1936.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial
policy.
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