"French Open Champs Maria & Rafa Sent Packing: A Wimbledon Centre Court Edition of Shock or Not"
 Rafa Nadal and Nick Kyrgios (Florian Eisele/AELTC)
There were some shocking scenes on the courts today at Wimbledon…well, mainly on one court. SW19′s famed Centre Court became the graveyard of both reigning French Open champions today. Sharapova was knocked out by Kerber, and Nadal was sent packing by Kyrgios. Not content to play second fiddle, Serena was involved in her own drama on Court 1. Here’s a quick R16 “Check-In” Shock or Not before I throw myself into my second set of quarterfinal previews.
 Angelique Kerber (Javier Garcia/AELTC)
Angelique Kerber defeats Maria Sharapova: Shock or Not? Big Shock.
In spite of the fact that Maria won her first Slam at Wimbledon, grass hasn’t historically been a great surface for her. She reached the semifinals in the two years following that win, but didn’t make another deep run until her loss to Kvitova in the 2011 final. Still, she’s a multi-Slam winner and great competitor. Her chances looked very good to face Bouchard in the quarterfinals.
Conversely, Angelique Kerber came into this match with a losing record against Maria. On top of that, she’d also had limited success at Wimbledon; usually exiting well before R16 matches like today. She did, however, reach the semifinals in 2012. I guess that taste of success was that she needed to upend the script in this match, and knock Maria out of contention for the rare French-Wimbledon double.
Maria’s 49 unforced errors probably didn’t help either…
 Nick Kyrgios (Florian Eisele/AELTC)
Nick Kyrgios defeats Rafa Nadal: Shock or Not? Even Bigger Shock.
I had a strong suspicion that Rafa wouldn’t make it out of this quarter after looking at the draw. However, there was nothing that indicated young Nick Kyrgios would be the one to knock him out of contention. Sure, Kyrgios is a talented up-and-comer, but beating the World No. 1, a 14-time Slam champion, on Centre Court? No way, right? Unfortunately for Rafa, yes!
Nick came out on court acting like he belonged, and that he had just as much of a chance for victory as Rafa. He then proceeded to serve huge, and smack backhand winners from everywhere on the court. His forehand wasn’t quite as lethal, but Rafa nullified that aspect of the Aussie’s game by continuing to play his backhand no matter how many times he got burned.
There is a distinct brashness to Nick that could be off-putting to some: like the manner in which he jumps around on the court (like a victory dance) after big points, or the loud manner in which he excoriates himself after bad misses. Moreover though, he’s a breath of fresh air in a sport that hasn’t really experienced one since the appearance of Novak on the Slam stage. And that’s definitely a good thing.
Rafa was fairly gracious in defeat, but one could sense a smidgen of sour grapes when asked about his young opponent.
“Everything is easier when you are arriving. Everything is new, nothing to lose, everything is good, everything is positive. You can do whatever and everybody see just the good things on you.” “We’ll see if he’s able to improve and to play at very high levels for a long period of time.” However, Rafa did end on a laugh by saying “For me… beach!”
Nick was hoping to crack the 25k level of Twitter followers during Wimbledon. I’m sure he’ll have no trouble now. I’ll help him out by ending with his first tweet after the big win:
- See more at: http://kevware.com/tennis/?p=9510#sthash.Jb8MNjaM.dpuf
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Post time 1-7-2014 10:51 PM
Khairy Jamaluddin @Khairykj 
