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| By Kate from UK (Rafael Nadal Uploaded by Sporti) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
Admittedly, starting a tennis blog mid-Wimbledon wasn't the sharpest idea that I ever had. However, it seems like so much has happened in the last 5 days at the All England Club that I couldn't possibly comment on it all anyway.
So the subject on everyone's lips is one Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic. I haven't been able to watch anywhere near as much live tennis as I would like to have, due to the time difference I am experiencing at the moment. However I was lucky enough to catch a replay of the Rosol/Nadal match and was blown away by how big Rosol was hitting the ball. The Czech journeyman was hitting the ball as if channeling an unstoppable combination of Andre Agassi, Del Potro and Soderling. I've always said the gap in ball-striking ability between the no.1 in the world and the no.100 wasn't so large, but the weapons Rosol brought to this confrontation were truly otherworldly. A cannon of a serve and the earliest hit forehands I've seen since Agassi showed that, at least on a non-clay surface, even Nadal's incredible defence can be taken apart if you are capable of hitting the ball that hard, that deep and that early.
The most impressive me from Rosol was that after a 45-minute cool down as the roof was closed over Centre Court, he returned not overawed by the situation but utterly focused. A lot of people have said that this break affected Nadal by breaking his momentum, although there is truth in this statement to an extent, lets look at this from Rosol's point of view. He had 45 minutes to think about the magnitude of his achievements so far, that he had pushed one of the greatest of all time to a deciding fifth set at a tournament that he has won twice! The thing about hitting 'the zone' in any sport, is that as soon as you start thinking about exactly how ridiculously well you are playing it can be gone. Instead of allowing himself to be psyched-out on the biggest day of his tennis career so far, Rosol came out and played like a man possessed in the fifth, and the rest is history.
Credit to Rafa after the defeat, he was as gracious as always. Signing autographs whilst presumably suffering from something akin to post-traumatic shock after facing the force of nature that was Rosol that particular day. Afterwards he refused to blame the time delay brought on by the roof saying “Sure the stop this time didn’t help me. That’s the sport. That’s it.”
If you are still reeling from how improbable a performance was, I'll leave you with the post-match thought of Lukas Rosol. When expressing his level of disbelief:
"I'm not just surprised; it's like a miracle for me. Like just some B team in Czech Republic can beat Real Madrid (at) soccer."
