TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – In recent years, the two-time former champion, Rafael Nadal has struggled to find his footing on the grass courts of Wimbledon. He has won a single match in the last two years here at these championships. Today he overcame Martin Klizan to win in 4 sets. There is also the added prize with this rare grass court victory that Nadal recorded his 700th career victory on the professional tour level; 11th on the all-time list. Cordell Hackshaw
Results, Order of Play, Draws and Interviews from The Championships
In recent years, the two-time former champion, Rafael Nadal (2) has struggled to find his footing on the grass courts of Wimbledon. He has won a single match in the last two years here at these championships. Two weeks ago, he was dismissed in the 2nd round of Halle by Dustin Brown. Thus it is hardly surprising that the Wimbledon committee placed the world’s number one second behind Novak Djokovic. While speaking on the matter, Nadal remarked, “What is past is past. What happened, happened. We don’t want to change that. The only way to try something is try to change what’s happening right now.” Change is exactly what he did on Centre Court as he overcame the obstacles presented by Martin Klizan to win in 4 sets 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3. There is also the added prize with this rare grass court victory that Nadal recorded his 700th career victory on the professional tour level; 11th on the all-time list.
Nadal was facing an uphill battle from the beginning as he faced triple break points in his opening service game. Klizan was showing some very nice aggression on the court but no sooner did he earn those break points than he committed five successive errors to hand Nadal the game. However, he was not deterred. He continued to pressure the Nadal serve every chance he got whilst holding his own. Klizan was finally rewarded in the 9th game of the set when the Nadal forehand went long. Klizan was able to serve it out for 6-4 in the 1st set. Despite dropping the opening set, Nadal remained calm and fought off early break points in the 2nd set. He broke Klizan for the first time in the match in the 6th game. This was all the momentum that Nadal would need as Klizan never led again at the any stage of the match.
Nadal closed out the 2nd set 6-3 having fought off more break points from Klizan. The Spaniard gave himself the double insurance breaks at 3-0 in the 3rd set. Klizan broke back in the 4th game and maintained the one break deficit for several games. He was making some inroads into the Nadal service game by getting himself to 0-30 several times but unable to produce the necessary plays to secure the much needed break. Nadal was more steady on his return game as he broke Klizan again in the 9th game and took a 2-1 sets lead 4-6 6-3 6-3. In the 4th set things proved to be interesting. Nadal broke Klizan in the 4th game and etched ahead 4-1. Klizan broke back in the 7th game to get back on serve. A fifth set looked possible but Klizan could not hold serve to even things at 4-4. Instead, Nadal served for the match at 5-3. Klizan unable to keep the ball in play on the final point saw Nadal take the match 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3. Interestingly enough, they met last year at the French Open in the 2nd round and the scoreline was the same.
After the match, Nadal had this to say, “Well, was a positive match for me. First thing because I won … I didn’t play much on grass for the last three years. So always is like you restart. So happy for the victory. In the end the match was difficult … I was able to try to find some solutions, some changes during the match.” Nadal added that he felt that he could play better, which most would agree with. He was winning 72% of his first serve points but only 41% on his 2nd serve, an area he will need to improve if he wants to lift the trophy for a 3rd time. Nadal will face in the 2nd round the man who took him out of Wimbledon at this same stage in 2012, Lukas Rosol. Of the match up, Nadal said, “He’s a player that can play very well on this surface. He’s aggressive player. Will be a tough match again. I know if I want to have chances to win, I need to play very well … If not, I don’t have chances to be in the third round. But I going to fight for it.”
