Standing Ovation: Lukáš Rosol

Normally, when the world #2 is defeated in the 2nd round at Wimbledon by some unknown 26-year-old kid, you would think a Party Foul would be warranted.  However, I am not in the seemingly ever-growing population of people obsessed with Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rafael Nadal.  You won't ever hear me saying "vamos Rafa" or anything of the sort because, as my friend Alex so eloquently proclaims, "all-time greats don't lose in the 2nd round during their primes."  Truth.

So today, instead of while criticizing Nadal, let's lift up Lukáš Rosol of the Czech Republic, who won in 5 sets 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.  Since I was at work, I only saw portions of this match, but based on what I witnessed, Rosol definitely deserved to win.  He seemed to do the impossible -- overpower Nadal.  Rosol stayed aggressive and forced his opponent to remain defensive beyond the baseline.  And it also helped that Rosol appeared to be using Thor's hammer as a tennis racket.

My personal favorite part of this major upset is what happened after the match.  Aside from the #Czechmate Twitter hashtags, I loved this quote from Rosol, talking about Rafa: "He's a superstar, I feel sorry for him."  Yes, I know I took that completely out of context, but let me just relish in this moment as I remember back to the days of Sampras/Agassi, when I truly still cared about tennis.  At least this has me talking about the sport again.

Actually, I take back my earlier statement about never saying "vamos Rafa."  Vamos a casa, Rafa!