Leo Mason-USA TODAY Sports
If you haven’t yet heard of Steve Darcis, you will now.
After all the talk about Rafael Nadal being seeded too low at Wimbledon, it appears he actually may have been seeded too high.
Darcis defeated Nadal in an impressive display of effort and grit on the first day of Wimbledon. The 29-year-old Belgian played the match of his life as he took down the reigning French Open champ in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8) and 6-4. It was Nadal’s first career first-round loss at a major.
Darcis played about as well as you can against Nadal, keeping the ball deep to his backhand side. His superior effort was the key to his success. Darcis dove on multiple occasions and left everything on the court. To be fair, Nadal didn’t appear to be on his “A” game. He hit many unforced errors and was unable to dictate the pace of the points at any point in the match. He couldn’t seem to get into a groove at all and hit countless errors.
Darcis’ best result in a major was the round of 32 at the French Open in 2011. This was only the third time he’s qualified for Wimbledon since he turned pro in 2003 and just his second career win at the tournament.
His career high ranking was no. 44 in the world back in 2008. He has two career titles compared to Nadal’s 58. The only tournaments he has won are the Dutch Open in July of 2007 and the Memphis Open in 2008. Darcis’ career singles record is 73-80 compared to Nadal’s 626-124.
Compared to Nadal’s 12 Grand Slam titles and two Wimbledon titles, it was certainly a battle of David and Goliath and as you already know, David won that matchup too.
David Fouty is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davefouty, “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.
