DOWN AND OUT
Rafael Nadal makes surprise exit from Wimbledon on first day of tournament.
Steve Darcis grinned half in delirium, half in sheer disbelief, after bathing in the adulation on Court No. 1. “Nobody expected this from me,” he said, quietly. Least of all Rafael Nadal, who for the first time in a rich and recordbreaking career lost in the first round of a grand slam, vanquished by a Belgian journeyman in straight sets in one of the most astonishing Wimbledon upsets of modern times.
In five minutes shy of three hours, the Wimbledon men’s draw was flipped on its axis as Nadal, fresh from his eighth triumph at Roland Garros, succumbed 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 to fall at the first in his 35th major tournament. Where Nadal’s eclipse 12 months ago by Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic had been shocking, this was an upset of seismic proportions as the 12-time grand slam champion beat a chastened retreat on the opening day.
There were worrying signs, too, of a return of the knee trouble that forced an eight-month layoff after last year’s Wimbledon, with the Spaniard limping visibly throughout the third set. But no semblance of an injury could detract even re- motely from the performance of Darcis, a 29-year-old itinerant ranked 135th in the world, but running high on inspiration to secure this extraordinary scalp.
Nadal had been 100 to one to win this encounter but grass again proved to be the great equalizer in tennis as Darcis’ imagination and clever slice ran his exalted opponent ragged. At several points the man from Liege simply smiled during the breaks in play, as if unable to comprehend quite what was unfolding. “I believe a lot of people will talk about this match in a few years,” he predicted. “Also of me, I think.”
No wonder Darcis was so keen to acquire a DVD of the drama for his baby daughter, Camille. For his was a display that defied credulity. Six months ago he had been deep in the netherworld of the challenger circuit, spending his Christmas week out in the Pacific Ocean, contesting the most obscure of events in New Caledonia. And yet with no prior warning, and just one previous victory against a player inside the top 10, he toppled the totem that is Nadal.
He had been galvanized, he claimed, by the sensation of beating Tomas Berdych on Centre Court in last summer’s Olympics. “That was one of my best memories, I have to say,” Darcis acknowledged. “The first top-10 guy you beat, you don’t forget. Now, here is the second one.”
Darcis operates under the nickname ‘Shark’, in honour of his star sign Pisces and his adolescent experiences of watching Great Whites from underwater cages. A tattoo of a shark is stencilled on his right shoulder, but he was the one baring teeth yesterday as he subdued the great Majorcan with an array of heavily sliced groundstrokes. One expected him to stutter, to exhibit some trace of nerves as he closed in on the win but Darcis had the temerity to make his final winner an ace. “I knew Rafa would be fighting like hell,” reflected Darcis, who identified grasscourt master Pete Sampras as his childhood idol. “Physically, I knew it would be difficult, but I played unbelievable tennis. I have to be really happy.”
It was tempting to wonder what the late Jean-Pierre Collot, darcis’ first coach back in Liege, would have made of such a prodigious feat. While an eminent junior talent, sent to a French Tennis Federation hothouse aged 11, he was never earmarked for greatness and has tended to travel far below the radar. Indeed, while Nadal was securing a maiden title at Roland Garros in 2005, darcis was plying his way through farflung futures competitions to improve his ranking.
“Maybe the toughest time was ’05,” darcis said. “I had a knee problem. I had to stop for six months and drop 500 places, starting again in qualifiers. It took a lot of energy for me to come back.”
Here, he could savour the consummation of that journey, drinking in the acclaim of fans who three hours before had referred him, nonplussed, as Mr. darcy. Nadal, meanwhile, could only offer apologetic applause to his supporters, many of whom had brought “Vamos” signs in the colours of the Spanish flag. But these fans had precious little to smile about throughout a remarkable match.
darcis signalled his intent early, taking the first set to a tiebreak and eventually sealing it with his sixth set point.
The second followed in similar fashion as he found a destructive first serve whenever he needed it, befuddling the world No. 5, who looked up imploringly towards his coach and uncle Toni.
But there was to be no rescuing him in the third as he surrendered an early break. Not even Nadal’s powers of escapology, it turned out, were enough to avert a defeat that reverberated throughout the men’s game.
“Rafa didn’t play his best,” darcis accepted. “I could see it. So I took advantage of it. I had chances on his serve and I converted them. I wasn’t in the match to have fun. I really wanted to do something out there, because people hadn’t expected anything.” And he smiled with a profound contentment that those people at last would know his name.