Steve Darcis: The unseeded Belgian who knocked Nadal out of Wimbledon
Darcis' career best singles ranking of 44 may not have posed a serious threat to Nadal but his ability to fight and shock veterans has been seen previously as well.
Each time a relatively unknown player vanquishes a champion in tennis, it makes for big news. Steve Darcis though made, possibly, one of the biggest when he ousted former World Number 1 Rafael Nadal in the first round of Wimbledon 2013.
An unseeded Darcis inflicted a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 defeat on Nadal who recently won the French Open title and defied pessimists who doubted his ability after an injury lay-off. It may have been a slightly lackluster performance from the Spaniard but his Belgian opponent was quite unforgiving as well.
After all, his career best singles ranking of 44 may not have posed a serious threat to Nadal but his ability to fight and shock veterans has been seen previously as well.
29-year-old Darcis broke into the top-100 rankings in 2007 and has since had the distinction of beating Robert Soderling to win an ATP title, his second by 2008. After working hard to improve his game without any path-breaking success, Darcis managed to enter French Open 2011 as a qualifier and defeated 22nd seed Michael Llorda.
Clearly then, this right-handed player - born in Liege - has had the knack of staging upsets. His win against Nadal though would truly be a success story his fans would not be forgetting in a rush.