100th Ranker Lukas Rosol crushes Rafael Nadal in Wimbledon

Lukas Rosol pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon history

 by crushing Rafael Nadal 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4

Chasing a drop shot in the second set, Rafael Nadal stumbled and tumbled into the net as his racket went flying to the sideline.

It just wasn’t his day. Nadal rose slowly to cheers from the Wimbledon crowd but found himself off balance the rest of the way and made his earliest Grand Slam exit since 2005.

Nadal was overpowered in the second round on Thursday by Lukas Rosol, a Czech ranked No. 100, 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

The 26-year-old Rosol earned the biggest win of his career playing in Wimbledon’s main draw for the first time. He lost each of the past five years in the first round of qualifying.

As the match stretched beyond dusk, the conclusion came with the retractable roof closed for the final set on Centre Court. The upset on tennis’ biggest stage was no fluke - Rosol served brilliantly and repeatedly stepped instead the baseline to hit aggressive groundstrokes, while Nadal found himself pinned deep and on the defensive.

Among those shocked by the result was Rosol.

“I’m not just surprised; it’s like a miracle for me,” he said. “I never expected something like this.”

Nadal saved three set points to win the opening set, but his demeanour grew glum as Rosol overtook him. After falling behind in the third set, Nadal grumbled to the chair umpire during a changeover, apparently irritated by Rosol’s movements as he awaited serves.

“I was concentrating on myself,” Rosol said. “I don’t know what he was complaining about.”

Two games later, Nadal bumped into Rosol and didn’t acknowledge the contact as they walked to their chairs for a break.

Rosol exhaled before hitting his final shot, which was his 22nd ace. He fell to his knees, arms up, then collapsed face down on the famous grass. He then rose and shook hands at the net with a frowning Nadal.

“I think I was better today a little bit,” Rosol said.

Rosol became the lowest-ranked player to defeat Nadal in a major tournament. The Czech lost only 16 points on his first serve, cracked his returns into the corners and won 22 of 28 points at the net.

In short, it was a complete performance that had spectators wondering why they’d never heard of him before. Nadal lost despite committing only 16 unforced errors in 276 points.

Google unveils Nexus 7 tab

Google made its long—awaited debut into the tablet wars on Wednesday, unveiling the Nexus 7 to compete with Apple’s dominant iPad as well as the recently announced Microsoft Surface.

The Nexus 7, developed in conjunction with Asus, features a 7—inch (17.8—centimetre) screen, making it smaller but more portable and lighter than its main competitors, which both feature screens of about 10 inches (25 centimetres). That places it in direct competition with Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which is by far the most successful running on Google’s Android operating system.

The Nexus 7 goes on sale for $199 effective immediately on Google’s online store Google Play, with delivery starting in the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia in mid—July, Google said. That makes it far more affordable than Apple’s cheapest iPad, the older model iPad 2, which sells for $399.

The Nexus 7 weighs just 340 grams, features an Nvidia Tegra quad core processor and a battery allowing for up to nine hours of video play on its 1280x800 pixel screen, or 300 hours of standby. It ships with Google’s popular Chrome browser as the default programme for surfing the web. It also features Google Now, a refinement of Google’s search service that provides personal information gleaned from your Google history, rather than mere internet links.

Android upgraded

Google unveiled the device at its developers conference in San Francisco, where the company gave details of its latest version of Android, nicknamed Jelly Bean, which improves major components such as touch, search, notifications and Google Maps.

Also revealed at the conference was the Google Q, a home entertainment hub that streams movies, music and other content, designed to compete with Apple TV and other entertainment hubs.

Google said some 1 million Android devices are newly activated around the world every day, with 400 million Android devices now in use.

In another mark of the rocketing popularity of Google’s mobile operating system, Google said that its online store now boasts more than 600,000 apps, with 1.5 billion apps downloaded by users every day.

Alonso wins European GP, with plenty of late-race drama.

Fernando Alonso won the European Formula One Grand Prix in front of a Spanish home crowd on Sunday from 11th place on the grid and became the first repeat winner of the season amid plenty of late-race drama.

The Ferrari driver Alonso got his 29th career victory from Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher got his first podium since his 2010 return by coming third for Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel had to retire with a technical problem in the 34th lap, Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Lotus suffered the same fate running in second place four laps later, and the drama was complete when Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton collided in a fight for third place in the penultimate lap.

Vettel had dominated the race from pole some 20 seconds ahead of Grosjean at the time. The advantage ended when the safety car came out in the 29th lap after a collision between Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso and the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen.

Alonso squeezed past Grosjean seconds after the restart in the 34th and was at the top before the end of the lap when Vettel’s Red Bull suddenly slowed down and the German threw his gloves away in frustration.

“We don’t know yet what happened,” Vettel said in first television interviews, suggesting the safety car may have been brought out for tactical reasons. “We controlled the race, but then came the safety car, which wasn’t really necessary. The safety broke our neck.”

Alonso safely drove home while Hamilton was overtaken by Raikkonen in the third last 55th lap and in the next lap was forced to retire after the collision with the Williams of Maldonado, which gifted Schumacher his first podium since 2006.

Alonso crossed the line in 1 hour 44 minutes 16.649 seconds and saluted the 100,000-strong crowd with a Spanish flag after his strong race from 11th place. Webber started as far down as 19th but fought to fourth.

Only 23 cars competed on Sunday as German Marrusia driver Timo Glock was ruled out with a stomach bug.

The next race is the British Grand Prix on July 8 at Silverstone.