Nadal crashes out at Montreal

World No. 41 Ivan Dodig of Croatia earned the biggest win of his career on Wednesday by upsetting World No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain in the second-round of the 2011 Rogers Cup in three gruelling sets with a 1-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (5) scoreline and reached the third-round of the tournament.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal started off the proceedings of his second-round encounter of the 2011 Montreal Masters in a typical manner against Ivan Dodig of Croatia, as he won the first set comprehensively with a 6-1 scoreline, but no one would have imagined that Dodig could pull it off from there. Well, the Croatian Ivan Dodig earned the biggest win of his career on Wednesday by upsetting World No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain in the second-round of the 2011 Rogers Cup in three gruelling sets with a 1-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (5) scoreline and reached the third-round of the tournament. Nadal joined defending champion and fourth-seeded Murray now, as one of the top-seeds to be vowed out at early stages of the Montreal Masters.

Dodig regrouped himself tremendously after losing the first set and much had been contributed by Nadal’s wobbly form, as the Spaniard continued to commit unforced errors at crucial junctures and did not look near to his best. Dodig earned this victory in 3 hours and 8 minutes, as he fired 19 aces and mustered 69% points on his first serve. The Croatian also hammered 44 winners and duly benefitted from Nadal’s 33 unforced errors. Dodig also converted 3 out 4 break points. In the third-round, Dodig will take on the Serbian Janko Tipsarevic who rallied past another Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in three sets with a 6-4 6-7 6-3 scoreline.

After 35 minutes of play in the first set, second-seeded Rafael Nadal clinched it convincingly by breaking Dodig twice. Nadal fired 2 aces and 14 massive winners to keep proceedings under control. The Spaniard served well, as he earned 75% points on his first serve and duly converted 2 out of 4 break points to sail through with the first set. Dodig did not have any break point in the first set.

Just when it looked that Nadal will run away with the match, Dodig surprised everyone, as he broke back Nadal in the second-set and took it to the tie-breaker. It was a tremendous fight-back from Dodig, who looked bit down after losing the first set, but he quickly regrouped himself and played fantastically in the tie-breaker to take the match into the decisive set. Dodig won the second-set in 1 hour and 7 minutes, as he fired 7 aces, earned 71% points on his first serve with the help of 20 massive winners. The final set also saw the exchange of breaks between the two contenders and it also reached the tie-breaker, which was won by Dodig.

Earlier in the day, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets 7-5 6-1, to reach the third-round of the 2011 Montreal Masters. Djokovic is joined by Roger Federer, who outran Canadian wild card Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 in a display of percentage tennis to move to the third round. Another Croatian Marin Cilic upset Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets with a 6-3 6-4 scoreline.

Other notable winners of the day were: Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nicolas Almagro, Stanislas Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet, Ernests Gulbis, Viktor Troicki, Tomas Berdych and Ivo Karlovic, who all posted convincing wins over their respective opponents to move ahead in the draw.