WIMBLEDON, England - It was the luck of the draw that Rafael Nadal and Lukas Rosol would meet in the second round of Wimbledon for the second time in three years. The first time still stands as Rosol's greatest victory and, perhaps, Nadal's worst defeat.
Rosol, a strong and sturdy Czech, an outsize burr in Nadal's ambitions, put up a spirited fight before succumbing, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4. Nadal, never comfortable in the match, celebrated with an unusually hearty yell and a leap uncharacteristic of a second-round victory.
'A lot of tension, but I think I had a good answer after big trouble between the first and second set,' Nadal said in a postmatch television interview. 'I think I finished the match playing great.'
Their taut contest led off a day also noted for five-set marathons on Court 2 and a blink-and-you-missed-it rout by Serena Williams, the women's top seed. She found little resistance in Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 victory in 49 minutes as she searches for her sixth Wimbledon title.
Nadal is hoping for a third, but it seems a tortuous journey. His loss two years ago sparked a habit of grass court struggles for the world's top-ranked player. Nadal returned in 2013 and lost in the first round to little-known Steve Darcis. Back on grass this month, he lost to the unsung Dustin Brown in the first round of a Wimbledon tuneup in Halle, Germany.
Seeded second at this Wimbledon, Nadal snapped that three-match losing streak on grass with a victory Tuesday against Martin Klizan and appeared to have rediscovered his footing at a tournament he won in 2008 and 2010.
But then Rosol reappeared in his path. Rosol, a 28-year-old Czech ranked 52nd in the world, was just 8-12 in Grand Slam tournaments. Other than when Nadal is across the net, he is no Wimbledon maestro. After beating Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012, he lost the next match to Philipp Kohlschreiber. Last year, Rosol lost to Julian Reister in the first round.
But Rosol, unlike most players on the tennis tour, finds his best for Nadal. On Thursday he broke Nadal's serve at 4-4 in the first set, then served to capture it. If he had not been experiencing déjà vu before, Nadal certainly was by then. Rosol broke Nadal again early in the second set, and momentum rode shotgun with history.
But Nadal, teetering and down, 3-4, in the second, mustered enough defense and heart to push back, winning the first three points off Rosol's serve and soon capturing the game. It brought a livelier gait to Nadal's stride and the Centre Court crowd to his side.
Still, the teeter-totter looked prepared to dip to either side. Rosol reached set point in the tiebreaker, but Nadal served and finished with a forehand winner. Nadal captured the next point, too, and took the set on Rosol's first double fault.
Rosol's success began with his booming, pinpoint serve, reaching as high as 131 miles per hour. Rosol placed 65 percent of them in during the first two sets, and won 88 percent of those. Nadal, as good a defender as any in tennis, was knocked off balance by the combination of the serves and Rosol's rocketing forehands. One was hit so hard that it struck the net tape and still flew long over the baseline.
But Rosol tired and slowed, and his service game melted into inconsistency. In the third set, only 46 percent of his first serves were in, and those won only 63 percent of the time.
Nadal broke Rosol again early in the third set, taking unsteady control of the match. A final burst of suspense came as Nadal, with a chance to serve for the victory in the fourth, was taken to a break point. But he fought that off, and won on his third match point.
Nadal released a primal scream and skipped and leapt into the air.
As Nadal headed toward an uneasy victory, the day's drama shifted to Court 2. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France and Sam Querrey of the United States were scheduled to resume their deciding set there Thursday after it was suspended for darkness Wednesday night, tied, 9-9.
First, they had to wait for the opening match between France's Richard Gasquet, seeded 13th, and the 19-year-old Australian wild card Nick Kyrgios. With unpredictable symmetry, it, too, grinded far past its expected conclusion.
Kyrgios, the youngest player in the men's draw, batted back nine match points to emerge with the biggest victory of his young career, a 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5, 10-8.
'I'm so happy right now, I don't even know what I'm talking about,' Kyrgios, smiling and sweaty, told a television reporter after rambling through an analysis of his victory.
That match took 3 hours 53 minutes before yielding another delayed conclusion.
For a time, through the fading light of Wednesday evening and through the early afternoon of Thursday, the seesaw match felt familiar: a lanky, hard-serving American knotted with an unbending Frenchman at Wimbledon.
But this was Querrey and Tsonga in 2014, not John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in 2010. Starting in the late afternoon on Court 2, they split the first four sets, then went to 6-6 in the fifth. Wimbledon, unlike most tournaments, including the United States Open, does not use the tiebreaking system in deciding sets.
So the players kept trading games. At 8-8, the darkness having chased the light, the chair umpire called for a postponement, but Querrey and Tsonga protested. New balls were ordered, and each held serve again. The match was held over until Thursday, stuck at a playing time of 3 hours 21 minutes, the score frozen at 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 9-9.
In 2010, on Court 18, the Isner-Mahut match, bridging three days and requiring more than 11 hours to settle, was won by Isner with a 70-68 tiebreaker score in the fifth set.
Querrey has a home in the Wimbledon record book, with the second longest match in history, behind Isner-Mahut. In the third round of 2012, he lost to Marin Cilic in a five-set match that took 5 hours 31 minutes. The fifth-set tiebreaker was 17-15, but it was hardly remembered in the wake of the Isner-Mahut match two years earlier.
Tsonga, seeded 14th and looking to regain his former top-10 form, knew he would have his struggles against Querrey, a longtime top-25 talent with a 120-mile-per-hour serve. Querrey had reached the quarterfinals and semifinals of two Wimbledon tuneup tournaments this month.
The shape of their match did not change when it resumed, as Querrey, then Tsonga, traded service victories until the fifth-set score reached 12-12. On a second break point, Querrey sent a backhand long after an extended rally.
Tsonga, serving to win, closed it out, 14-12. Only 113 more games and it would have set a record.
Lukas Rosol celebrates after his stunning victory over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012. Photograph: Javier Garcia/BPI
Andy Murray played for a total of 302 minutes in his three straight sets wins during Wimbledon's opening week. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
'English was not their first language, but they were using the definite article talking about 'the money', like there was a particular stash, but there was no money to give them.
Officers are also asking for information on anyone who saw a two-door cabriolet style, silver Volkswagen car.
Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland has had his ambition to win Wimbledon severely impaired by a scheduling decision. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP
