Rafa Nadal reignited speculation over his future after one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history .
The French Open champion lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam for the first time, going down 7-6 7-6 6-4 to unknown Belgian Steve Darcis. The world No. 135 is the lowest-ranked player to beat Nadal for seven years.
The Spaniard, who refused to discuss his persistent knee problems, suffered a shock defeat in the second round here last year – and then did not return to action for seven months.
And yesterday the winner of 12 Grand Slams – the last at Roland Garros only a fortnight ago – was struggling with his left knee again.
Again we must wait to see when one of the sport’s biggest stars will return to action.
After losing to Lukas Rosol under the roof here last year, Nadal missed the Olympics, US Open and Australian Open with tendinitis in his knees before returning in February.
He has since won seven of his nine tournaments – and reached the final in the other two.
But eight of those were on his favoured clay surface and he pulled out of the warm-up tournament on grass in Halle last week.
Despite arriving in the UK last Tuesday on a 22-match unbeaten run, the 27-year-old was clearly under-prepared for Wimbledon after needing to take a week off after his eighth French Open challenge. And yesterday he was simply not fit.
“I don’t want to talk about my knee this afternoon,” said an irritable Nadal during repeated post-match questioning.
“It is not the day to talk about these kind of things. Just congratulate Steve Darcis. He doesn’t deserve one excuse.
“I am confident I will have a good recovery and be ready for the next tournaments.
“Life continues. It is not a dramatic thing. That is sport. This is a sport of victories. Nobody remembers the losses. And I don’t want to remember that loss.
“It was not possible this year. I am going try my best for the next couple of years.”
Asked when he would return to action given his long injury lay-off last year, he said: “Not very late. Not that late, for sure.”
But Nadal breaking down at his second consecutive Wimbledon raises further questions about the long-term future.
“I cannot predict the future,” Nadal said. “I cannot say if the calendar was wrong or if it was positive. Six hours ago was a perfect calendar, now is a very negative calendar.”
He added: “Obviously I have doubts. I have doubts on grass. Today I play with doubts. I lost, yes.”
Source
