Rafael Nadal Shocked At Wimbledon

This takes care of “How was Rafael Nadal’s day?”

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When Rafael Nadal loses in a slam, it’s either to an all-time great or because he’s hurt. Or, on random occasion, some guy just swings as hard as he can on every shot, and they all land in. Robin Soderling blew him off the court at the 2009 French Open, and Juan Martin Del Potro did the same at the 2009 U.S. Open.

But they were seeded players. They were not the No. 100 player in the world.

Day 4 at Wimbledon ended with a huge second-round upset as Lukas Rosol defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

After dropping the first set in a tiebreak, Rosol played the match of his life. He won the second and third sets but it appeared Nadal reclaimed the momentum in the fourth. After a delay to close the roof, though, Rosol came out energized and hit some unbelievable shots to pull off the upset.

The second round of play continued on the grass courts on Thursday and featured a big win for American men’s player Mardy Fish.

Fish faced English player James Ward in the second round on Thursday and managed to defeat his opponent in five thrilling sets, finally advancing on scores of 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3.

It’s been a good day for Americans so far at Wimbledon, with two men winning their second round matches this afternoon following Serena Williams’ victory early in the day. Andy Roddick and Brian Baker both progressed in straight sets on Thursday.

Baker had no problem with Jarkko Nieminen, winning his match 6-0, 6-2, 6-4. He finished with just eight unforced errors and was not broken in the match. Roddick was tested a bit more by Bjorn Phau, who pushed him to a tiebreak in the second set, but he still won comfortably, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

Day 4 at Wimbledon is underway, and some big names, such as Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and a pair of Americans in Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, are currently out on the courts, but first, let’s cover some of the matches that have already wrapped up.

No. 7 David Ferrer took on Kenny De Schepper, a 6’8 lefty Frenchman. De Schepper troubled the Spaniard at first, pushing the first set into a tiebreak, but Ferrer dominated the tiebreak and didn’t struggle at all after that, winning 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 6-4. He’ll go on to face the winner of Roddick’s match with Bjorn Phau.

Day four at Wimbledon is underway, and for the most part, nothing surprising is happening through Thursday’s second-round matches.

Maria Sharapova was given a little bit of a scare by Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova, as both of the first two sets needed to go to tiebreakers in a match suspended from Day 3. Sharapova survived five set points in the first set to avoid losing her first set in five career matches against Pironkova and won the tiebreak, but Pironkova forced another tiebreak in the second set and won, 7-3. However, the world’s No. 1 female player bounced back and put up a bagel, winning the match 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7) 6-0. She’ll face Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh in the third round.

The fourth day of play at Wimbledon gets underway early on Thursday, with second-round action in both the men’s and women’s draws. ESPN2 will begin live coverage from London at 7 a.m. ET, continuing throughout the day until 5 p.m. ET. ESPN will have various viewing options available, including online streaming at Watch ESPN.

Serena Williams plays the first match of the day at Centre Court, early in the morning in the United States. That’s followed up by a match between Andy Murray, who will have the home crowd behind him, against big-serving Ivo Karlovic. Rafael Nadal closes out the day’s action on Wimbledon’s big-show court.