Rafael Nadal insisted he has no intentions of quitting tennis despite slumping to a fourth successive Wimbledon humiliation.The 29-year-old Spaniard, who was Wimbledon champion in 2008 and 2010 and runner-up in 2006, 2007 and 2011, was humbled 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 by dreadlocked German Dustin Brown, the world number 102, in the second round.Brown, who once was so short of cash that he travelled to tournaments in a camper van, hit 13 aces and 58 winners on the back of a free-hitting, serve-and-volley barrage.Thursday’s loss followed his 2012 second round exit to world 100 lukas Rosol, a first round beating by the No 135 Steve Darcis in 2013 and last year’s fourth round defeat to Nick Kyrgios, who was at 144.
But the 14-time Grand Slam winner and former world number one vowed to fight on in an effort to restore his reputation as the sport’s most feared competitor.“So I lost. Sad today for that, obviously,” said Nadal, who came into the tournament ranked at 10, his lowest in a decade.“But that’s sport. Good moments, bad moments. Obviously today is a bad moment for me. I just need to accept these kind of things can happen. I did that all my career.“I will keep going. It’s not the end. life continues and my career, too. I have to keep going and working more than ever to try to change that.”This year, Nadal has looked a shadow of the player he was.He lost at the French Open for only the second time in his career, knocked out in the quarter-finals by Novak Djokovic after arriving in Paris having failed for the first time to have won a European clay-court title.
He’s been at a career crossroads before — his defeat by Darcis was followed just three months later by a US Open title.Despite that evidence, Nadal knows that a third Wimbledon crown may be beyond him especially with the grass courts proving the most demanding of all the surfaces on his troublesome knees.“2012 and 2013, I was not ready to compete well. last year and this year, no problems at all with my knees. So I was ready to compete. I lost. I don’t know if I will be back to the level of 2008, 2010 or ‘11.”