Rafael Nadal suffered a huge upset defeat in the second round of the Rogers Cup as he was beaten by Croatian Ivan Dodig.
World number 41 pulls off huge upset to knocked out Spanish giant
Croatian Ivan Dodig claimed the scalp of world number two Rafael Nadal in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Nadal, who relinquished his Wimbledon title and top ranking to Novak Djokovic last month, looked in charge in his first match since the final in south-west London when he took a one-sided opening set against Dodig.
But world number 41 Dodig fought back to take the next two on tie-breaks, twice coming from a break of serve behind in the deciding set, to triumph 1-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/5) for the most impressive win of his career.
"This is the biggest win of my career, of my life," said an excited Dodig. "I enjoyed it so much. I was fighting hard for every point. In the end I managed, I'm really happy."
The 26-year-old fired 19 aces past Nadal, to seven by the Spaniard, as he avenged his straight-sets defeat on clay in the Barcelona semi-finals earlier this season.
Decisive
"Honestly, I didn't feel I played bad but I can't say I played well. In the decisive moments, I didn't play well, that's the truth," said Nadal.
"He played very well, very aggressive. He didn't feel the pressure in the important moments."
Top seed Djokovic moved through to the third round with a 7-5 6-1 win over Nikolay Davydenko although the score did not reflect serving problems which saw the world number one broken four times.
"Being No. 1 is a big responsibility, not just on the court but off the court as well," Djokovic said. "Just trying to handle it in the best possible way, but on the other side trying to keep my life very simple, the way it was before.
"I needed some rhythm, and he didn't give me any. I got back into the match. When I needed to use my chance, I did. Then, you know, (the) second set was much more comfortable for me."
Fifth seed Gael Monfils beat American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-2 7-6 (7/5) while there were also wins for seventh seed Tomas Berdych, eighth seed Nicolas Almagro, plus Richard Gasquet, Stanislas Wawrinka and Ivo Karlovic.
Dodig's fellow Croatian Marin Cilic caused a minor upset by beating the Argentinian 16th seed, Juan Martin Del Potro, 6-3 6-4.
Serbian 12th seed Viktor Troicki marched on, beating American John Isner 6-4 3-6 6-2.
American Mardy Fish won the day's final match, crushing Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-2 6-3.
