In a shocking turn of events, the world’s No. 1 ranked tennis player, Rafael Nadal failed to secure a place in the quarterfinal round of the Shanghai Masters after being defeated by Jurgen Melzer in the third round.
In the three previous matches, Nadal never dropped a single set while playing against the Austrian. Ironically, the Spaniard was defeated in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 match last Thursday by Melzer, who was last defeated by Nadal during the semifinal round of the French Open.
A month ago, Nadal was victorious at the U.S. Open, and became known as the seventh male tennis player in all of history to win all of the four Grand Slam tournaments. He was gunning for his eight title for the 2010 season at the Shanghai event.
Unfortunately, Melzer was already set to face Nadal, and was aggressively hitting back, launching booming forehand winners and managed to effectively attack Nadal’s second serve. He broke Nadal two times and soon captured the opening set within 40 minutes.
Nadal bounced back in the second set, but was able to make his first and only break during the match with the use of a running backhand bouncing down the line, which the Austrian hit right into the net.
The two players held strong during the deciding set until the fifth game, until Nadal did not efficiently hit a forehand long, and soon hit another wide shot that gave Melzer an opportunity to break him. Although Nadal, saved three match points during his serve, Melzer finished off the game on the next serve, defeating Nadal.