Rafael Nadal said Tuesday he was gearing up for a fight against Lukas Rosol as he prepared to exact revenge on the man who knocked him out of Wimbledon two years ago.
The world No 1 accepted he risks being bundled out of the tournament again if he is not at the top of his game when he faces the Czech in Thursday’s rematch.
And the 14-time Grand Slam champion admitted that the shock defeat in 2012 still played on his mind.
Asked what he had learned from the loss – which was followed by last year’s first round defeat to the unheralded Steve Darcis – the Spaniard said: “I lost”.
“I lost because he’s a good player. He’s a player that can play very well on this surface. He’s an aggressive player. It will be a tough match again,” the 28-year-old said.
“I know if I want to have chances to win, I need to play very well. That’s what I going to try to do. If not, I don’t have the chance to be in the third round. But I am going to fight for it.
“Rosol is a very dangerous player, very strong, very powerful shots from the baseline and I know I have to play very well if I want to have chances to win.”
Rosol is ranked at 52 in the world and has a win-loss record of 13-15 this season, though he lost his first round match at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the grass warm-up tournament in the Netherlands.
“The important thing is to fight, play with the right tactic and wait for the luck,” said Nadal.
“What is past is past. What happened, happened. We don’t want to change that. The only way to try something is try to change what’s happening right now.”
Nadal entered the All England Club having not won a grass court match since the first round two years ago, before Rosol stopped him in his tracks in round two.
But the French Open champion got back to winning ways in his first round match this time, recovering from going a set down to beat Slovakia’s world No 51 Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 on Centre Court.
“I am excited to be back here, to win again a match at Wimbledon, on the Centre Court. When you go on court and you lost last year in the first round, the year before in the second round, no, I’m not going to lie to anybody, sure, it stays in your mind,” said the two-time Wimbledon champion.
“But, in the end, it is a tennis match. And winning Roland Garros, you are able to go on court with a little bit less pressure than if you don’t win there, and that helps.”
It was Nadal’s 700th tour level match win. The Mallorcan is the 11th player in the Open Era to reach the milestone.
Nadal said he didn’t think playing the French Open on clay and then Wimbledon back to back was an overwhelming challenge for the top players.
“I don’t see a big difference of winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon because in the end if you’re in the final, you really make the same adjustment. You were able to play very well on grass, too,” he said.
“I was able to do that five times. Djokovic was able to play the final in Roland Garros or semi-finals and then win here.
“I don’t see that winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon is so difficult one tournament by itself.
“The real thing is you don’t have lot of time to prepare and to play matches on grass. But the best players were able to do it very well the last couple of years, the transition.”
Kei Nishikori, meanwhile, said Tuesday he was feeling in hot form at Wimbledon and was eager to go deep into the tournament for the first time after dismissing Frenchman Kenny de Schepper in his first-round match 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5.
The Japanese 10th seed has the Memphis and Barcelona titles under his belt this year – his first multiple titles in a season – and reached the semis of the Halle grasscourt warm-up tournament, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.
The 24-year-old, who has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals and the fourth round of the French and US Opens, has never progressed beyond round three at Wimbledon and wants to put that right this time.
“It’s one of my goals, to do well here at Wimbledon. I’m always excited to come here and play,” he said.
“I’ve been playing really well this year. All the clay season helps, even on grass. I feel more confidence. Everything is going well for me. I had a good couple of matches in Halle, got more confidence on grass. If I can keep playing well, I think I can go farther this week.”
Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka also reached the Wimbledon second round. Wawrinka, the world No 3 but seeded five at the All England Club in a reflection of his grasscourt struggles, fired 18 aces and 39 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
Wawrinka, who has never got beyond the fourth round and was without a win in the tournament since 2011, tackles Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun, who topped Ukrainian Aleksandr Nedovyesov in a gruelling five-set match, for a place in the last-32.
“It’s a quick surface, you have to be relaxed and confident. Sometimes you can be tight and nervous,” said the Swiss.
His compatriot Roger Federer defeated Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 to begin his quest for a record eighth Wimbledon title.
Federer, also attempting to win his 18th Grand Slam title, lost in the second round here last year, his earliest defeat at Wimbledon since 2002. He finished Tuesday’s match with his ninth ace.
It is Federer’s 16th consecutive appearance at Wimbledon and his 59th Grand Slam event in a row, extending his record for the longest streak of consecutive majors in the Open Era.
Other seeds to make their way through to the second round on Tuesday included No 8 Milos Raonic (d Matthew Ebden), No 9 John Isner (d Daniel Smethurst), No 13 Richard Gasquet (d James Duckworth), No 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (d Jurgen Melzer) No 15 Jerzy Janowicz (d Somdev Devvarman), No 19 Feliciano Lopez (d Yuichi Sugita), No 22 Philipp Kohlschreiber (d Igor Sijsling), No 23 Tommy Robredo (d Lukas Lacko), No 24 Gaels Monfils (d Malek Jaziri) and No 30 Marcel Granollers (d Nicolas Mahut).
The only seeds to fall on Tuesday were No 28 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who lost to Dusan Lajovic, No 32 Dmitry Tursunov, who fell to Denis Istomin and No 29 Ivo Karlovic, who was beaten by Frank Dancevic.
Other higher-profile names to go down included Julien Benneteau, who lost to Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and Alejandro Falla, who fell victim to Ante Pavic of Croatia.
The other winners on the day were Jack Sock (d Pierre-Hugues Herbert), Sam Querrey (d Bradley Klahn), Adrian Mannarino (d Pere Riba), Lukas Rosol (d Benoit Paire), Jarkko Nieminen (d Federico Delbonis), Julian Reister (d Michael Russell), Simone Bolelli (d Tatsuma Ito), Mikhail Kukushkin (d Dudi Sela), Jiri Vesely (d Victor Estrella Burgos via retirement), Lukasz Kubot (d Jan-Lennard Struff), Nick Kyrgios (d Stephane Robert), Lleyton Hewitt (d Michal Przysiezny), Santiago Giraldo (d Daniel Gimeno-Traver) and Denis Kudla (d Marsel Ilhan).
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