Two time former champion Rafael Nadal has been sensationally beaten by the world no. 102 Dustin Brown in the second round on Day 4 at Wimbledon. The qualifier from Germany played the match of his life to cause the biggest upset of the Championship so far as he beat the former world no. 1, winner in 2008 & 2010, the scoreline was 7-5,3-6,6-4,6-4. In his first career appearance on the famed center court the 30 year old Brown attacked from the word go and won 71 of 99 serve and volley points in the match lasting 2 hours and 34 minutes. Brown now goes on to meet the resurgent Serb Victor Troicki in the third round. Troicki beat Aljaz Bedene in four sets.

Meanwhile the seven time former champion Roger Federer was in impressive form as he brushed aside the American Sam Querrey 6-4,6-2,6-2 in just 85 minutes. The 2013 champion Andy Murray was equally devastating in his demolition of the Dutchman Robin Haase as he won in 86 minutes on court no. 1, 6-1,6-1,6-4. While Federer plays the Australian Sam Groth in the round of 32, Murray will play the Halle finalist Andreas Seppi of Italy who took five sets to beat the promising 19 year old Croat Borna Coric. Also winning in straight sets were Tomas Berdych and the Frenchmen Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Gael Monfils.

The other winners on Thursday included local favourite James Ward and Canada’s Vasek Pospisil who upset the 30th seeded Italian Fabio Fognini. Another seed to fall was the Spanish veteran left hander Feliciano Lopez who fell in five sets to the unheralded Nikoloz Bashilashvili of Georgia. Ivo Karlovic served 53 aces in a five set win clinching the decider 13-11 against the Ukrainian Alexander Dolgopolov. There were also five set wins for the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut who rallied from a two set deficit against the Frenchman Benoit Paire. Pablo Andujar, also of Spain defeated Nadal’s 2012 conqueror Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic.

Here is a list of third round matches to be played on Day 5 in the men’s section with my pick mentioned first:-

Novak Djokovic (1) v. Bernard Tomic (27)
Kevin Anderson (14) v. Leonardo Mayer (24)
John Isner (17) v. Marin Cilic (9)
Denis Kudla v. Santiago Giraldo
Stanislas Wawrinka (4) v. Fernando Verdasco
Marcos Baghdatis v. David Goffin (16)
Grigor Dmitrov (11) v. Richard Gasquet (21)
Milos Raonic (7) v. Nick Kyrgios (26)

The defending champion in the women’s section Petra Kvitova, the former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska, Timea Bacsinszky, Angelique Kerber, Madison Keys, Camila Giorgi and Monica Niculescu had straight sets wins. Jelena Jankovic, Garbine Muruguza and Sabine Lisicki needed 3 sets to advance. The Australian Casey Dellacqua upset the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina while Germany’s Tatjana Maria capped a good day for her country with a hard fought win over Ying-Ying Duan of China, winning 10-8 in the decider. Other seeds to fall were Alize Cornet who lost to Olga Govortsova of Belarus, the Russuans Ekaterina Makarova and Svetlana Kuznetsova who lost to Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia and Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic respectively.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy.You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]