Rafa Nadal and Sara Errani sent packing by : Steve Darcis and Monica Puig ~ who !!

Heard of Steve Darcis who ? and is No.5 unlucky ??  ~ certainly not good news for Rafa fans…. Here is a photo of Darcis and who is the other…

The Spaniard Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a  former world No. 1.  Now  he is ranked No. 5 by the ATP.  He is nicknamed ‘King of Clay’, considered to be one of the greatest players in clay court. Nadal has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, and a record 24 ATP World Tour Masters .

For those of you who follow Sports other than Cricket too, the Wimbledon 2013 is now on ~ it is the 127^th  edition of the Wimbledon and  the third Grand Slam event of the year. It takes place  at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and runs from 24 June to 7 July. The tournament consists of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event.  The tournament is being played on grass courts and is taking place over a series of 19 courts, including the four main showcourts.  Roger Federer and Serena Williams are the defending champions in singles events.

For those of you interested here is the Men’s top 10 : 1. Novak Djokovic;  2.   Andy Murray;  3.   Roger Federer;  4.   David Ferrer;  5.   Rafael Nadal;  6.   Jo-Wilfried Tsonga;  7.   Tomáš Berdych;  8.   Juan Martín del Potro’  9.   Richard Gasquet and 10.   Marin Čilić.. In Women, the top 8 is :  Serena Williams; Victoria Azarenka; Maria Sharapova;    Agnieszka Radwańska;  Sara Errani;  Li Na; Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitová

Moments before Roger Federer marched onto Centre Court to mark the official opening of the 2013 Championships, the event provided its first shock with the exit of the fifth ladies’ seed, Sara Errani. The 26-year-old Italian crashed out 6-3, 6-2 to Monica Puig, a teenager from Puerto Rico making her senior Wimbledon debut. The 19-year-old Puig, consistently took the match to her vastly more experienced opponent and faltered only on the brink of the biggest victory of her young career, needing seven match points to wrap things up in one hour 22 minutes on Court 18, which ironically is the setting of the longest match in the sport’s history, more than 11 hours between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Errani was runner-up at the French Open last summer and a semi-finalist there this year.

Then another no.5 was shown doors……… yes, Rafa Nadal is out of Wimbledon suffering a shocking straight set defeat in the hands of Darcis.  Steve Darcis hails from Belgium and has won two titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 44 on 12 May 2008. Darcis has won two ATP titles but is  would best be known for his giant killing of Nadal today……..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.
PS : Darcis, ranked No.135 in the world, is the lowest-ranked player to beat Nadal since world No.690 Joachim Johansson (a former top 40 member) beat Rafa in Stockholm in 2006

Photo and news courtesy : www.wimbledon.com