A 30-year-old German journeyman who once travelled around Europe's Challenger Circuit in a camper van joined a list of Wimbledon luminaries who go by the names of Lukas Rosol, Steve Darcis and Nick Kyrgios.
Wimbledon lost one of its biggest crowd pleasers on Saturday when dreadlocked German Dustin Brown, who toppled twice champion Rafael Nadal, lost to Serb Victor Troicki before a court filled with fans willing him to victory.
Canada's Milos Raonic pounded 17 aces to end the winning run of second seeded and Commonwealth gold medallist Somdev Devvarman and create the biggest upset of the day in the $1,25,000 Tashkent Challenger, on Thursday. The 155-ranked Raonic beat the 95th ranked Somdev 6-4, 7-6(3) in an hour and 18 minutes.
Dread-locked German Dustin Brown was nowhere to be seen at Wimbledon on Friday, at least into the early afternoon, but his shock upset of Rafa Nadal the night before remained the talk of the tournament.
Prakash Amritraj advanced to the doubles quarter-finals of the Italy ATP Challenger event along with his partner but curtains were drawn on the campaign of Harsh Mankad in Bergamo in Italy.
It was a clearly deflated Rafa Nadal who admitted he has no idea whether he can ever reproduce the form that helped him win two Wimbledon titles after maverick Dustin Brown inflicted a fourth successive embarrassment.
A relieved Rafael Nadal felt the confidence come flooding back in a first-round romp at the Australian Open on Monday.
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