As has happened so often to those who have upset Rafael Nadal’s ambitions in recent years at Wimbledon, the next step forward turns out to be onto a trapdoor. And so it proved for Dustin Brown, the dreadlocked qualifier from Germany.
Despite an attacking performance which veered between brave and foolhardy, he was out-served and out-thought by Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, the 22nd seed, 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours 18 minutes on No.2 Court.
Troicki has been in rich form in the grass court run-up to The Championships, having been a finalist at Stuttgart, where he lost to Nadal, and a semi-finalist at Queen’s Club. A coruscating serve is what has propelled that success and it was in explosive evidence against Brown. There were 24 aces, many of them at crucial moments, and none more so than in the second set tie-break when, as Brown pointed out ruefully, he struck four aces and a service winner.
Brown’s tactic, one which had served him so spectacularly in the second round against Nadal, was to close in on the net.
“If it was 30-all he had either an ace or a good serve that I didn’t get back,” said Brown. “He didn’t give me any chances. All credit to Vik. He served too well for me today.”
In the early stages it unnerved Troicki, especially when one Brown drop shot carried so much backspin that it bounced back over the net.
But the Serb is an experienced performer at Grand Slam level and it didn’t take him long to work out an effective counter.
On serve he was dominant; when receiving, he frequently left the onrushing Brown flailing in mid-court or trapped at the net.
The spectators loved the Brown bravura, but it was a flawed strategy. It was what cost him the opening set.
Serving to stay in it, he committed successive double-faults and then, on set point, was comprehensively passed as he charged in behind a poor volley.
The solidity of the Troicki game was exemplified in the second set. A dozen aces were backed up by just two unforced errors and Brown urgently needed a rethink after the disaster of the tie-break.
If someone had said sign here for getting through qualifying, beating Rafa and making the third round, I would have signed
The “full speed ahead” strategy had been holed by a flood of aces and brilliant returns, and he did better by holding back. It worked, and won him the third set, as he broke with a brace of deep forehands from the baseline. In the third set he had even out-aced Troicki by five to three. The shocked Serb took a bathroom break to rethink.
Sadly for Brown, Troicki was supreme on serve in the fourth set, with just two points conceded, while the German needed to fight off a succession of break points. This he managed until finally, having been foot-faulted on a second serve, his resistance was broken.
But if he was disappointed, Brown was certainly not downhearted. “I’m happy with my tournament. When I came here, if someone had said sign here for getting through the qualifying tournament, beating Rafa and making the third round, I would have signed that paper. All that is great. It’s just made everything special.”
And his next commitment? “The schedule is to go to the airport and take the earliest flight because tomorrow morning I have club matches in Cologne.”
