Rafa Nadal lost the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic. It was his 5th straight loss against the Serb who has now also replaced Rafa as the #1 ranked player in the world. I'm gutted.
It's a horrific result for any Nadal fan. The sad thing about it is that his recent losses to Novak have been mostly mental. In the Wimbledon final, he was holding serve very well up until 4-5 when all of a sudden he suddenly lost the plot. I thought Rafa would go down without a fight after losing the second set 1-6 must but when he managed to break Novak early in the 3rd set and held on to that break to win a set, I thought he could at least get into the right frame of mind to put up a fight as he normally does against everyone else. Unfortunately, it was the same story in the 4th, with Rafa holding his own up until the tail end of the match where his fight seemed to all but disappear.
It's frightening to think that Nadal's asset throughout his career has been his unmatched mental strength and belief that he can win any match, even when he's down. Rafa now needs to find a way to get back his focus and figure out a way to beat Novak. I just hope he figures it out sooner rather than later.
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