Steve Darcis Knocks Nadal Out

This is not a sentiment you will hear a lot, but reigning French Open champion Rafael Nadal lost in straight sets to the 135th seeded Belgian Steve Darcis in the first round of Wimbledon 2013.

Rafa was never favourite heading into this years championships, which was evident from many previews and opinions from expert pundits that I read, but nevertheless nobody expected him to lose at this early stage of the tournament. Last year he lost in the second round to Lukas Rosol in a five set thriller, but this time round Belgian Darcis didn't really seem that troubled. So what went wrong?

Rafa is clearly still hampered by his knee which was evident throughout the match at key moments. This was especially clear when Nadal could be seen moving around the ball for a forehand rather than a backhand, thus restricting the pressure on his knee that a strong backhand delivers. This resulted in Nadal playing the majority of the match looking for forehand winners and nowadays it is impossible to beat someone on the professional tour using just a forehand even if you one of the 'big four'. Other factors that played a part was that Nadal hadn't played a competitive match on grass since last years Wimbledon and having played so much tennis on the clay, the transition from one surface to another was clearly something Nadal was struggling to cope with. It is easy to say "well he's done it before", but least you forget having been out of the game for over seven months, anyone will struggle with the change in surface. But it was the way Steve Darcis played that really sent Nadal home early. The Belgian was playing with belief and he was determined to win and maybe this is how many lower ranked players should play against the top seeds because it clearly gives you a chance to topple them. Darcis was making all kinds of shots and kept playing every last ball forcing Nadal into errors. But like Jimmy Conors said last year about Lukas Rosol, Darcis is nothing more than a 'stopper', someone who stops a seed from progressing but never makes it deeper in the tournament. Darcis has shown quality on grass before when he beat Tomas Berdych in the first round of the London Olympics last year but can he carry on to deliver? Well that's what we will find out in the next few days, but something tells me he probably won't.

An interesting note to point out before I sign out is the comments I read by Boris Becker. The six-time grand slam champion declared on BBC Sport that, "He definitely has to consider whether grass has a future for him". I was quite surprised by these comments but by looking further into it, I can understand why Boris would say this. Grass is a lot tougher on the tender knees of Nadal and I think that if missing the grass court events pro-long Nadal's injury prone career, then I think it makes perfect sense to stop playing at Wimbledon. But we all know Nadal is not like that and will now be more determined than ever to come back next year and show what he is truly capable of. But catching up with Federer's haul of 17 grand slam titles will have to wait, he's only five away but by the standards of tennis nowadays it is going to be a very hard feat to achieve.