Rafael Nadal Fails Again At Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal has had a sub-par 2015. After failing to reach the semis in either the Australian or French Open — he was knocked out of the latter by Novak Djokovic — he just lost to a qualifier in the second round of Wimbledon.

Rafael Nadal Loses

Simply, Nadal has not had the best Wimbledon career. Now, he has won two Wimbledon titles, but his least amount of overall Grand Slam wins is from the London tournament: he is 40-9 all-time. Also, since he lost in the finals to Djokovic in 2011, Nadal has garnered four straight early round exits from the oldest tennis tournament in the world.

This time he lost 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to a German qualifier named Dustin Brown, who is currently ranked 102nd in the world. And it is not like he lost to quality players in the previous three years. In fact, this is the fourth consecutive Wimbledon where he has lost to players ranked 100th or worse — Nick Kyrgios (144) in 2014, Steve Darcis (135) in 2013 and Lukas Rosol (100) in 2012. However, this is the first time he has lost to a qualifier in a Grand Slam.

Even though he has won more titles at Wimbledon than the Australian, he has always remained consistent at the other Grand Slams. It seems at London, the only thing he can do is remain consistently bad, which is quite shocking when considering his talent.

The next important question, is he hurt or is he finally over-the-hill at 29 years old? And before people yell at me, 29, as sad as it is to say, is fairly old in tennis, which is a young person’s sport. It is going to be interesting to see how he plays in August at the U.S. Open. Can he bounce back or will 2015 be a complete failure for the former number one in the world?