Tennis: Stunned Nadal crashes out at Queen's
Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 at Queen's Club on Tuesday.
LONDON (AFP) - Rafael Nadal suffered a shock first-round exit from the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen s Club as the Spanish star was beaten 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 by unheralded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov on Tuesday.
Nadal s dismal defeat against the world number 79 is the latest in a growing list of lacklustre performances in a troubled 2015 campaign for the former world number one.
The 14-time Grand Slam winner was beaten at the French Open for only the second time in his glittering career when Novak Djokovic won their quarter-final clash in Paris.
As a result, Nadal s ranking has plunged to 10th -- his lowest position for a decade -- and to add insult to injury he will now head to Wimbledon, which gets underway later this month, with renewed questions about a decline that hit another low with this setback in west London.
Nadal tried to downplay the significance of the result, saying: "It s a loss. I didn t play bad at all and fought until the end. Games on grass are like this.
"I played an uncomfortable player. Sometimes just a few things decide matches here and I wasn t lucky enough today. I probably didn t play aggressive enough when I had the break in the third set."
Dolgopolov added: "It s as good as I ve played on grass. I like to frustrate opponents and make it uncomfortable for them."
Nadal, back at Queen s for the first time in four years, wasn t expected to have any problems with Dolgopolov after the confidence booster of winning the grass-court tournament in Stuttgart last week -- his first title on the surface since lifting the Wimbledon crown five years ago.
But Dolgopolov had won his last meeting with Nadal -- at Indian Wells last year -- and dominated from the baseline as he took the first set.
In a dramatic second set tie-break, Nadal saved a Dolgopolov match point with a nerveless serve and went on to level the match.
Nadal looked in control after breaking in the third game of the final set, but he let the momentum, and a 4-2 lead, slip away after being given a warning for a time violation.
Three-time Queen s champion Andy Murray had no such problems as he saw off Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4, 7-5.
The 28-year-old top seed is coming off the best clay-court campaign of his career after taking titles in Madrid and Munich before pushing Djokovic to five sets in the French Open semi-finals.
He was never at his best against Lu, but the former Wimbledon winner had enough guile to eventually subdue the 31-year-old world number 63 and set up a second-round clash with Spain s Fernando Verdasco.
"I felt like I moved pretty well. I didn t start serving so well, but I hit the ball well from the back of the court," Murray said.
"I ve had good runs here. It s an extremely strong field this year so I ll have to play great tennis."
Meanwhile, French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka returned to action after his Paris triumph with a 6-3, 6-4 dismissal of Australian rising star Nick Kyrgios.
The Swiss second seed swept through his first-round clash in just 49 minutes to set up a second-round meeting with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson.
There was better news for another promising Australian as Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Jeremy Chardy 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-4 to earn a clash with French seventh seed Gilles Simon, a 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-2 winner against Belgium s David Goffin.
Kokkinakis s victory completed an emotional period for the 19-year-old, who has spent most of the last three days in the air after flying to Adelaide to be with his ill grandmother and then dashing back to Queen s after accepting a wildcard entry.
"She s struggling. But she s all right. She s old. It happens," he said.
"I ve spent something like 48 hours flying in three days. I m a little bit tired, but I slept long enough and I m happy with my decision."
