The giant who fell, the giant who cried

Chief Sports Writer

Friday 29 June 2012

WIMBLEDON last night resounded to a giant of the game reduced to rubble and to the recriminations of a giant defeated by Andy Murray.

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Hugh MacDonald

Rafael Nadal, a two-time champion at the All England Club, a winner of 11 grand slams, was defeated in five sets by a player ranked 100th in the world.

The Centre Court crowd roared under the closed roof as Lukas Rosol defeated the Spaniard 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. "I know Nadal is only human," said the 26-year-old, pointing out his opponent could not play at top form in every match.

"Before the match I was thinking of just playing three good sets," said Rosol, who has lost in the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon in the past five years.The defeat of Nadal, Murray's scheduled semi-final opponent, was the greatest shock at Wimbledon in recent times. It is the earliest Nadal has been defeated in a grand slam tournament since 2005.The Spaniard walked to the net shattered as Rosol fell to his knees in front of a cheering Centre Court crowd. "I was expecting nothing like this," said Rosol. No one was.He found it almost impossible to talk after the match, saying simply: "So many emotions."The unlikely hero had won only four grand slam matches. The 26-year-old equalled his best grand slam performance last night and claimed his greatest scalp. Nadal said off his opponent. "'He played more than unbelievable in the final sets."The Spaniard had no complaints about the decision to stop the match after the fourth set to close the roof. "That's the sport, that's it," he said. He said he did not have "the right inspiration to win the match in the first three sets.".Rosol, he said, hit the ball hard and without feeling the pressure. "Everything went right for him in the fifth," he said. "I played bad. I played with little energy."Murray, meanwhile, advanced to the third round where he will play Marcos Baghdatis after a match marked by controversy. Ivo Karlovic claimed he was cheated on Centre Court where Murray vanquished the 6ft 10in Croat 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (4). Karlovic, the world No.59, was called for at least six foot faults although he claimed he had been punished 11 times.The match statistics, though, show he committed nine double faults.An enraged Karlovic claimed: "I feel cheated. In a grand slam, on Centre Court." The 33-year-old believed the officials were biased in favour of Murray, saying: "After this match, the whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. It was outrageous, outrageous. It's Wimbledon, Centre Court and they do this. I mean, this is BS."He was asked if he believed that the bias came from a Wimbledon desperate to see a home winner, he said: "Not Wimbledon, but whole England or UK, sorry."The Croat said the officials were "definitely biased". He added: " I don't know if there is anything I can do about it. Only if there should also be like Hawk-Eye also looking at it so I could challenge it. But I don't see how I can do anything about it."Murray was sceptical about accusations of bias. He said: "It's very tough to question the integrity of Wimbledon, I would have thought. It's got a lot of history, a lot of tradition. There's been hundreds of thousands of matches played here over the years. I mean, I've never heard that before."He added: "There were a lot of foot faults in the match. Impossible for me to say whether they were foot faults or not. You can only look on the TV. And if he wasn't foot faulting then he has a right to be upset, because there were a lot of them. But if he was, then you can't do it. It's not allowed. I can't really comment on it unless I see it."An All England Club spokesman responded to the accusations by saying: "If he wishes to make a formal complaint then all evidence will be reviewed." Tim Henman, the BBC commentator and former British No.1, said: "In the Davis Cup, you always feel like a few calls go against you. With a foot fault, you are implying that the line judge is cheating, because you can't judge for yourself as you're focusing on the ball. It's something he will regret saying in the morning. You can't question the integrity of this tournament."

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The giant who fell, the giant who cried

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