Reuters: Sports News: Maori haka inspired Rosol's rampage against Nadal

Reuters: Sports News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Maori haka inspired Rosol's rampage against Nadal Jun 29th 2012, 14:01 1 of 3. Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic celebrates after defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain in their men's singles tennis match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London June 28, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville By Martyn Herman LONDON | Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:01am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Czech tennis writers were working overtime at Wimbledon on Friday, not just dealing with the national euphoria over Lukas Rosol's incredible win over Rafa Nadal but also with queues of reporters trying to find out who exactly the journeyman is. Rosol does not appear in the media book containing the profiles of players on the ATP Tour let alone the official Wimbledon program, other than in the daily updated draw sheet which records in black and white the biggest shock seen at the All England Club for many a year. Internet searches also reveal little about the player, other than he comes from Brno - the Czech city that has the distinction of having an asteroid named after it and being the birthplace of the Sten light machine gun. Further investigation throws up a few more tidbits about the 26-year-old whose 6-7 6-4 6-4 2-6 6-4 victory under the Centre Court roof has blown the men's tournament wide open. The tattoo which covers most of the 1.96 meter tall Rosol's left leg was inspired by the Maori haka, the ritual wardance made famous by New Zealand's mighty All Blacks rugby team. "It represents the haka and it says a lot about the way Lukas thinks about tennis," said Czech tennis reporter Jan Joroch, breaking off from writing about the man who has suddenly become a household name back home. "He plays aggressive tennis, to win every point, not waiting until the other guy loses it. Last night it worked but it's not always the case. He never changes his approach and the problem is that often it doesn't work. "But he's a fighter, he has great charisma, he has the tattoos on the shoulder and on the calf." Joroch said the Czechs were still taking in the enormity of 100th-ranked Rosol's win over 11-times grand slam champion Nadal, but sounded none too confident of Rosol beating Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in round three. "I think we are still in shock really," he said. "It's hard to play like this again. Sometimes he has a great day and can beat anybody but he can lose to anyone too. "He is a very nice guy, very honest, he says what he thinks and he can be controversial a bit sometimes." Despite his scintillating display, which included 65 clean winners, few are waging much money on Rosol reaching such heights again. Former Wimbledon champion Jimmy Connors tweeted: "In tennis‬ we call Rosol a stopper, he won't win or even go deep in tourney but he will stop a top seed from advancing ‪at Wimbledon." While Czech-born Wimbledon great Martina Navratilova added on her Twitter site: "Happy for Lukas Rosol, but really feeling bad for Rafa, would be shocked if Rosol can get anywhere near that form again... agree with Jimmy." (Editing by Pritha Sarkar) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions