Wimbledon 2013: Five reasons why Nadal lost his first round clash to Darcis

Rafael Nadal‘s shock exit in Round 1 of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships will go down as one of the greatest upsets ever. Nadal, seeded 5th at the tournament went down in straight sets to an inspired Belgian in Steve Darcis, who is ranked 135 in the world.

A couple of stats regarding the two players made the result all the more hard to believe; Rafa had previously never lost in the 1st round of a Grand Slam event while Darcis had never beaten a top five player in his ten year long professional career.

A lot has been made out about the condition of Nadal’s knee and the adverse effect it had on his match in the opening round. However, here are five reasons why the knee was a non-issue in the end result.

1. Darcis’ high level of play

The opening two sets went to a tie-break in which Darcis eventually prevailed. Nadal, for the most part, in those opening sets looked to be moving around comfortably and had his chances in both sets. In each set, Rafa managed to break the Belgian’s serve once, but Darcis was coming up big on the crucial points and played really well to take those sets into a tie-break.

In set one, Nadal had four break point opportunities, converting one and was one of two in the second set. Part of the reason for that was Darcis, who served 11 of his 13 aces in the first two sets. He also won a high percentage of points behind his first serve (73%) often coming into the net and upsetting Nadal’s rhythm.

Darcis is a good grass court player and he used his skills to good effect coming to the net 46 times and winning 70% of the points when he did. Nadal even had set points in the second set during the tie-break, which were saved effectively by his opponent.

It was only in the third set that Nadal’s movement appeared limited and there was the visible lack of lift-off that he was getting on his serve. Even in that third set, it was just the single break of serve that separated the two players; Darcis in fact converted the only break point he earned through the set.

2. Unforced Errors

A lot of the unforced errors – 24 – from Nadal’s racquet stemmed from the excellent play of Darcis on the other side of the net.

The Belgian, who employs a single-handed backhand, used the slice to good effect and the court, wet and damp from all the rain over the past few days, kept the ball low and made it tough for Nadal to get under them and unleash his whip-like forehands.

To go with that, Darcis made 53 winners, 19 more than Nadal and having the same number of unforced errors had a huge net differential of +19 in this category over the Spaniard.

3. Lack of Preparation

Post that record clinching 8th crown at the French Open, Rafa went home to Spain and spent the time in between the two Slams recuperating and training. He was due to play at Halle, but chose to skip it instead and the lack of preparation was evident.

Moving from clay to grass is not at all easy if you are not acclimatised. The ball bounces higher on clay, it keeps low on grass; it slows off the court on clay, it zips through the court on grass.

Nadal said as much in his post match presser, “The opponent played well. I had my chances. I didn’t make it. So in grass is difficult to adapt yourself, to adapt your game. When you don’t have the chance to play before, I didn’t have that chance this year, is tougher. I didn’t find my rhythm.”

And that corroborates to the above point on how the match was close and that Nadal did indeed have good chances to seize the initiative in the early sets.

4. Rafa is vulnerable in Week 1 at Wimbledon

More than any other slam, Nadal has had difficulty at Wimbledon during the first week. He is a 2-time champion on the hallowed greens, but it has not been without the odd first week scare, especially against players with good grass court games.

In 2003, he was taken to four sets by Mario Ancic in Round 1 before eventually falling to Paradorn Srichaphan in straight sets in Round 3. In 2005, he lost in the 2nd round in four sets to Gilles Mueller, an accomplished serve and volleyer.

In 2006, when he made his first final, he had to come back from two-sets-to-love down against unseeded Robert Kendrick in Round 2. A second consecutive runner-up trophy in 2008 came after surviving back-to-back five-setters against Robin Soderling and Mikhail Youzhny (was 0-2 down) in Rounds 3 and 4.

In 2010, the year he captured his second Wimbledon title, he was taken to five yet again by Robin Haase in the second round and Philipp Petzschner in the third round. And of course last year, the second round exit to Lukas Rosol in five sets.

In other words, whether with a warm up tournament under his belt or not, Nadal has had a tough first week at SW19 in at least five out of the eight years that he has appeared. The courts are fresh and fast in the first week and opponents have managed to use that to good effect against him.

5. The knee has never been 100% all year

The sole purpose of Rafa skipping the Halle tournament was to give himself some much needed rest and it would be foolhardy to think that he would come into the event with a suspect knee without Uncle Toni and himself being fully confident of it holding up.

The truth is that even through his magnificent comeback, which saw him win six out of the eight tournaments he played in (five on clay), his knees were never 100%. Nadal through various interviews during that period has mentioned that some days it feels good and some others it doesn’t.

At Rome and even at Roland Garros, he admitted to feeling pain in the knee during a few of the matches, but that it was manageable which enabled him to continue. “Some weeks I didn’t feel well,” he said after claiming his 8th French Open title. “I am still going week by week, day by day.”

Grass though, is a completely different beast. Of all the surfaces, clay exerts the least amount of pressure while grass does the most. The ball keeps a lot lower on grass and the players are forced to get down really low to play their shots. That in turn, means more pressure on the knee and the lower joints, which tends to exacerbate any niggling problems that a player may have in those areas.

Rafa was candid after the match on the difficulty level, “I said is probably the toughest surface for me today, because I had to move and I have to play in a lower position than in the rest of the surfaces.” And without the experience of playing a tourney on grass, Nadal jumped straight into the deep end.

When Sharks sense a potential prey, they tend to close in and circle round them, lying in wait for an opportune moment to strike. Steve ‘The Shark’ Darcis, nicknamed for the shark tattoo on his shoulder, moved in just as swiftly as he saw Nadal swimming in troubled waters. He bide his time, stayed patient and played the big points extremely well to ensure that there was no way back for the 2-time champion from Spain.