The Aftershocks
****WIMBLEDON, England—The aftershocks of the earthquake that shook this little corner of London when Lukas Rosol bombed Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon continued to rattle the windowpanes and send tremors through the trellises here today.
Almost every player who did a press conference was asked his or her reaction to the upset. Some, like Juan Monaco, were asked about nothing else. I'm just glad Monaco was a straight-sets loser to Viktor Troicki, because subjecting a winner to that treatment would have been insulting.
The comments that most vividly summed up the fairly uniform—and predictable—reactions were those of Rosol's Davis Cup teammate on the Czech Republic's side, Radek Stepanek. He said, "Everybody was definitely shocked, because, you know, it was like he put million on red yesterday, it was there, every single time. When I saw his face he didn't even know that he's on Centre Court, and he just went after his shots hitting winners from everywhere. He was just swinging, swinging, and, you know, it was very impressive from his side what he did yesterday."
As for the beaten two-time champion's woes, the emerging theme among our knowledgeable Spanish-speaking friends was that Nadal was not quite right at this Wimbledon. Over the past three months, he must have felt that great burden Novak Djokovic being lifted off his shoulders. And once the weight was entirely gone, at the end of the French Open, Nadal was floating on air—and suddenly lacking the appropriate degree of gravitas and determination it takes to win Wimbledon, where so many dangerous characters are nursing their secret or open ambitions.
There may be some truth to that, but it could be the most irrelevant item of truth floating around the place. And it's also undermined by the fact that Rosol was nothing less a man possessed yesterday—something that would not have changed no matter what kind of mood Nadal was in. Or let's put it this way: Had Nadal won that fifth set, as almost everyone predicted that he would, wouldn't the main theme have been how lucky Nadal was that that it took the gremlins working the pulleys and levers 45 minutes to close the roof? It gave Nadal time to re-group in a general sense, some would have said, while others sagely noted: It gave Rosol way too much time to think about the magnitude of what he was about to accomplish!
About that, Djokovic said: "Rafa knew what's best for him. Obviously it distracted him a little bit because he was playing well in that fourth set. But that's what happens. These are the conditions. You cannot affect the weather."
Djokovic wouldn't come out and say it, but he implied that the player's job is to deal with the conditions. And one indisputable fact is that on that score, Nadal has had far, far more experience than Rosol. Didn't he beat Federer on that selfsame Centre Court, back before it had a roof, in the dark? I don't think Nadal handled the delay badly, as the quality of his play in the fifth set proved; I do think that Rosol handled it amazingly well. If anything, Rafa's attitude bespoke a puzzling lack of that champion's toughness that we know he has. He doesn't need to search for or make excuses, certainly not the way Rosol played.
When Maria Sharapova weighed in, she offered the same perspective as other top players. "When the guy's firing missiles left and right, going for broke, I just think it's one of those days. Yeah, it's tennis. We can never underestimate who we're going up against. We always say how you can be ranked 1 or 100, and they still have to put the net up for you to play the match. That's why we're here."
Speaking of those still present, Sam Querrey sniffed out one of the leading themes that emerged from this disaster for Nadal. "I'm sure the British press sees a nice little path for Andy. He's lost to Nadal the last couple times. And Nadal's been in the final I think five years in a row."
Well, five years with a time-out in 2009, to be precise. But the point he made is a good one, and it helps explain why so many players today were prevailed upon to contemplate Nadal and Rosol. Murray's chances of winning Wimbledon have improved dramatically, just as Roger Federer's chances to win the French Open in 2009 did a flip when Nadal lost in the fourth round. Oh, Murray has plenty of guys to worry about in his half, but none of them are named Nadal. Murray has been beaten by Nadal in their last five Grand Slam encounters—four of them in semifinals.
This is all great news for Murray, but for one fact: The sudden surfeit of pressure that it will bring to bear upon him, pressure that it's hard to imagine he anticpated. The same was true for Federer, back in '09, but there's an important difference here. Murray is the great British hope in the British Grand Slam, and he doesn't have the same reservoir of Grand Slam confidence that Federer had accumulated by the time his big chance in Paris arrived. Nadal's competitive body is still warm, but the British press is already hard at the calculations of just how much this will help Murray's quest. The problem is that we're not talking about a semifinal here; Murray needs to win four more matches to get to the final. He'll be lugging the pressure for a solid week. Djokovic felt obliged to spell it out for one over-eager British reporter:
"This is a draw of 128 players. Everybody, especially in the opening rounds of the tournament, has big motivation to make a surprise, to go out there and play their best tennis. You can't underestimate any opponents. You have to go slowly. I'm sure Andy is aware of that."
Murray most certainly is cognizant of his position, but that isn't going to make it much easier. He's going to have to navigate some very challenging mental and emotional territory, both in his own head and on the printed page. It's a tough position to be in, if not as daunting as having to beat Nadal and (potentially) Djokovic or Federer in a final.
When Stepanek was asked if he thought it likely that Rosol would go farther in the tournament, his reply was priceless. "I think you will have the answer in 24 hours."
In a curious way, now that Nadal has lost you can ask the same question, substituting the name of Murray for Rosol.