The most shocking aspect of Rafael Nadal's loss to qualifier Donald Brown in the second round of Wimbledon on Thursday was that it was not a shock.
The 102nd-ranked Brown sent Nadal home in the second round with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 triumph that marked the fourth straight year that the Spaniard lost to a player ranked in triple digits at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
His initial comments during his post-match news conference talked about his continued efforts to fight through his slump.
"Obviously today is a bad moment for me," Nadal said, according to atpworldtour.com. "I need to accept these things can happen... it's not the end. It's a sad moment for me, but life continues. My career, too. I have to keep going and working more than ever to try to change that dynamic."
Nadal sounded more and more defeated as the interview went on.
The New York Times reported that Nadal was asked what he would do if he couldn't reverse his slide and his doubt began to surface.
Rafael Nadal in denial about crumbling game after early Queen's Club exit?
"I'm not going to deceive you; I don't know," he said, according to the Post. "I think today it's early for us, but hey, if it lasts for two years or more, then of course we will see what happens."
But then he started to talk about his Wimbledon career and not being able to reverse his fortunes.
"2012 and 2013 were not an issue. I was not competitive - too much problems on my knees," he said during his post-game news conference. "But last year and this year, no problems at all with my knees, so I was ready to compete. I lost. I don't know if I will be back to the level of 2008 or 2010 or 2007 or 2006 or 11.
"My motivation is to try to be back to that level. I'm going to keep working on that, but if I don't make that happen, actually I played five times here the last day and had the trophy back home two times so it's not too bad."
USA TODAY Sports reported on a tweet from New York Times writer Ben Rothenberg, saying Nadal looked as dejected as he's ever been in public "by some distance."
Right now, Nadal has no answers, which puts one particular question to the forefront of the current state of his game:
How much longer will he play?
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