The first three days of action at Wimbledon 2012 had had a few upsets and shocking come-backs with some of the big names like Venus Williams exitting tournament early. But no such upsets were being expected from day-4 as both of the big names on the men's side ,Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray, were scheduled to face relatively easy opponents.But what actually happened was beyond everyone's expectation and even imagination.
First up on Centre Court, it was the half Brit-half Scot Andy Murray against the 6foot-11 giant "Ace-Machine" Ivo Karlovic. Murray didn't face much resistance in the first set and bagged it 7-5. In the second set, Ivo's racquet started firing aces, like it usually does, forcing a tie-breaker which Karlovic eventually won 7-6(7-5). The third set saw Ivo run out of gas and Murray fully capitalised on it . Andy took away the third set 6-2. Karlovic again found his touch in the fourth set and forced a tie-breaker but this time, Karlovic didn't have luck on his side and his rare double-fault gave Murray that narrow window of opportunity that he needed to close out the set and the match.Murray didn't waste any chance o availing the opportunity and sealed his victory in four sets 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2 7-6(4).After the match, Ivo blasted out on the tourament authorities saying that he doubted their credibility and that he felt "cheated".Karlovic was foot-faulted eleven times during the match.
Then it was Nadal's turn to try to make his way into the third round. Rafa started off slowly and had a break of serve which he lost in his very next service game.The first set went to a tie-break with the Spaniard emerging victorious with a score of 7-6(11-9). It looked as if Rafa would carry on the momentum into the second set but this certainly wasn't the case. Rosol broke Rafa in his very first service game of the second set and then held on to his serve throughout the set to bag it 6-4. The third set saw a similar situation as the 26 year old Rosol again broke and then successfully held on to his service games to get ahead of Rafa for the first time in the match.Now Rafa seriously felt his bid for the World No.1 rank in jeopardy after losing out two straight sets to World No.100 player. Nadal regathered himself in the fourth set and totally took control of his shots and as a result, he won the fourth set 6-2 to level it two sets a piece.
But just when it seemed that Rafa was in the driving seat, the tournament authorities told the players that the play had to be suspended and the retractable roof , which normally takes 5-10 minutes to unfold, covered the Centre Court in a time of 45 minutes. When the play resumed, Rosol raced to a 1-0 lead by getting a break over the seven-time Roland Garros Champion. Rosol kept firing aces and winners against Rafa and wrapped the match up with another furious ace.This is Rafa's earliest exit from a grandslam tournament after 2005.This defeat has also brought an end to Rafa's streak of five straight finals in grandslams as well as in Wimbledon.“Today I was somewhere else and I'm really happy for this,” said Rosol. “Still, I cannot find the words. I still can't believe it. It's like a dream for me.”
In other matches, World No.1 Maria Sharapova successfully reached the third round after a challenging victory against Pironkova in three sets 7-6(3) 6-7(3) 6-0. David Ferrer and Andy Roddick also breezed into the third round after straight sets wins. Gilles Simon and mrion Bartoli were also among the star players who were shown the exit doors on day-4.
Here are the highlights of Rosol's emphatic win over Nadal:
Following are the main matches scheduled for Day-5 at Wimbledon 2012:
Novak Djokovic (SRB)[1] v. Radek Stepanek (CZE)[28]
Roger Federer (SUI)[3] v. Julien Benneteau (FRA)[29]
Nicolas Almagro (ESP)[12] v. Richard Gasquet (FRA)[18]
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