Dustin Brown Stuns Top Ranked Rafael Nadal In His Grass Court Opener In 59 Minutes

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Dustin Brown Stuns Top Ranked Rafael Nadal In His Grass Court Opener In 59 Minutes
By Tripp Mateschitz, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Saturday, June 14, 2014 3:10am PST USA

HALLE-- Fresh off winning a record ninth French Open title on the clay in Paris last week, the world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain however failed to adapt to the faster grass court surface Thursday at the Gerry Weber Open as he was stunned in his opening round match by the 85th ranked German Dustin Brown 6-4, 6-1.

After receiving a first round bye, Nadal took to the Stadium Court at Halle, Germany in round two to face Brown.

Dustin Brown of Germany and Rafael Nadal of Spain

Between 2005 and 2007 Nadal won a stunning 81 clay court matches in a row to set the record for most consecutive matches won ever by a male on any surface in the Open Era.

And with the word out that one of the only ways to beat Nadal is to overpower him, the 6 feet 5 inches tall German wasted no time in launching his attack upon the 6 feet 1 inch tall Spaniard.

At the net straight away, Brown, who needed a wildcard just to enter the tournament, pressured Nadal into several errors before hitting consecutive aces down the tee to hold serve in the opening game.

The set would remain on serve until Nadal would serve to stay in the set at 4-5. The big serving Brown was not intimidated but rather remained very aggressive.

A Brown crosscourt forehand winner followed by a Brown crosscourt forehand volley winner saw Nadal trail 0-40 as he faced three set points.

Nadal saved all three setpoints to reach deuce before the German would rip a backhand down the line return winner to set up set point four.

A netted Nadal inside out crosscourt forehand on the following point sent Brown ahead one set to love.

In set two with Nadal's baseline topspin loops looking less and less effective on the fast grass court surface, Brown continued to hit the ball extremely flat and hard as he sent down ace number eleven to power ahead to a 5-0 lead.

In the following game, a Nadal ace down the tee at 40-15 put the Spaniard on the board at 5-1.

But it was not enough as the king of clay who had looked flat for a large part of the day would net a forehand return at 40-15 in the final game to end the match.

Nadal won the French Open in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 and is 66-1 on the clay at Roland Garros.

Between 2005 and 2007 Nadal won a stunning 81 clay court matches in a row to set the record for most consecutive matches won ever by a male on any surface in the Open Era.

However the Spaniard has struggled to duplicate his overwhelming clay court success on the fast grass courts at Wimbledon with his only wins occurring in 2010 and 2013.