Gerry Weber Open: Rafael Nadal crashes out in second round

Rafael Nadal

The World No. 1 Rafael Nadal’s Wimbledon ambitions suffered a setback as he went down to wildcard and World No. 85 Dustin Brown 6-4, 6-1 in his first grass court match after reclaiming his French Open crown. Brown is the lowest ranked player to beat a world No. 1, since Roger Federer went down to No. 98 Mardy Fish at Indian Wells 2008.

"I didn't play. That can happen when you play an opponent like this. But I don't want to talk about the opponent. The only way I could have tried to do more was resisting with my serve, something I hadn't practiced a lot these days," said Nadal, after going down in straight sets.

"For the first four games he didn't put any returns on the court and then suddenly he was playing winners from the return, so it's difficult to analyze these kinds of matches. The only thing I can do is keep working the way that I did the last three days, because I came here, I tried hard, I tried my best," Nadal added that he gave his best shot.

Nadal has mentioned before that he is determined to do well in the grass court tournaments in a bid to improve his Wimbledon record. However, his shock defeat has made his fans worry a bit. Meanwhile, the 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer overcame a scare of an another upset before getting the better of Joao Sousa in three sets.

"It was important to stay calm, and actually it gives me more confidence winning this way than maybe just 6-4, 6-4 and you don't quite know what is going on," said Federer about the importance of the match.

It was also Federer’s first outing since making an early exit at the French Open losing to Ernests Gulbis in the fourth round. Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun defeated Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) to book his match against Federer. Kei Nishikori, the fourth seed will face Steve Johnson in the quarterfinals. Johnson qualified after Teymuraz Gabashvili pulled out with a right knee injury.

All quarterfinal matches are scheduled for June 13, with the first match between Alejandro Falla and Peter Gojowczyk starting at 3.30 PM, Indian Standard Time.