Wimbledon 2012 Day 4: Nadal v Rosol

I am going to be honest.  I wasn’t that fussed about this match.  I knew I had a bunch of transcripts to get through, and to write up the day.  In my mind I was already planning it purely from a British standpoint.

I actually thought I might pop off for a cup of hot chocolate and then head home nice and early.

From the outset, with Rosol to serve, the guy came out swinging free.

He thumped down plenty of serves to start, so no sign of big league nerves at the start.

In fact we all figured that normal service had resumed when Nadal broke him at 2/2, but Rosol immediately broke back.

Towards the business end of the set, serving at 5/6, Nadal just seemed to be slow in his stride and his range at the start was just not quite there.

So surprisingly we found ourselves with Rosol looking at his first set point.

Nadal salvaged the game to take the first set into a tiebreak and here the guys traded set points here and there, and people were just wondering what was going on.

Finally Rafa took the tiebreak 11/9.

OK so NOW we figured normal service would be resumed.  Surely Rosol’s head would drop and Rafa would tie this all up.

We stepped out, only to see Rosol up a break by the time we made it to the bar.

No leisurely drink for us, back we scuttled to see what was going on.  And I made the most of what signal was out there to bash out a few tweets for Tennis Panorama.

About mid way through the set Nadal did seem to be moving more gingerly, and a huge long slide carving up centre court was hardly likely to make the groundsmen happy.

Rosol was scoring lots of cheap points of that serve, painting the lines and more importantly showing absolutely no nerves at all to serve it out for the second set.

Even though Nadal looked a little more sprightly at the start of the third set, he just could not get on to the end of the Rosol serve, and again just seemed to be on the back foot, head down.

After being broken in the third game, Nadal gave the umpire a decent talking to.

Rosol was still hitting lines spot on – he was almost Djokovic-like which might explain why Nadal was in all kinds of doscombobulation.  His moments of consistency were at best inconsistent.

Nadal was seriously annoyed – staring angrily at his box, staring angrily across the net

The third set went to Rosol, who then had to ask the umpire where to go to the bathroom, for a comfort break.

In the fourth set was where Nadal FINALLY started to get himself pumped up, and at times it looked as though Rosol was starting to cramp up and feel it.

Even though Nadal still was not moving his feet well, he was playing with a lot more urgency about him.  The grunting was being stepped up and he was coming into the net a lot more.

By now though, it was clear that it was getting darker by the minute, and as Nadal took it into a decider, the decision was made to bring the roof over, meaning a 30 or minute break.

Nadal looked less than pleased, and you can see why – the momentum was with him now.

The start of the fifth set was like a cauldron of expectation and excitement and the cheers were just deafening.

Hysterically, both of them sprinted off to their respective ends at the same time.

Nadal was in absolutely no hurry (not surprisingly) whereas Rosol started with the same intensity he had at the start of the match.

Even more unbelievably we had a 3G signal so back to tweeting.

Having broken Nadal in the first game, Rosol really never let up the barrage, showing Nadal no mercy.

For someone ranked 100, to serve out in the decider, against the world number 2, 3 aces and holding to love.

It was an outstanding match.

All through the match, the guy sat next to me had been saying: “Who is this guy”.

We knew after tonight.

Late Night Finish Aftermath

As you can imagine – a late night finish causes all kinds of issues.

Massive queue for the cabs.

Cabs refusing to go any further than the station, which meant a walk through town late along the Broadway (not so bad) and down two very dark side roads (not so good).

Writing copy in jammies (good), negotiating keyboard with dressing gown sleeves (surprisingly harder than it would seem).

Copy filed at a quarter to one in the morning.

Next up… Court 1, second Monday.