Rafa lost at Wimbledon in the 2nd round though, in unfavorable conditions to a guy that still hasn't ever played at that level, and never will again. Sure it's a HUGE upset, but to this day, he's still only ever lost 1 match in his entire life at RG. The weight of what Soderling did>>>>> Wimbledon 2012.
Depends how you see it. I don't see it that way.
Rafa was bound to lose at some point at RG. And losing to a great player like Soderling is no problem. Soderling has better RG results than even Nole,Ferrer.
But W is the biggest tournament in tennis and losing to mugs early is worse.
I guess I have different interpretation of what a bad loss is. If you lose to a good player at later stages in a close match, that's ok.
But if you lose early to a lesser player is far worse for me.
It's my perspective. Fed also says that his loss at W 2013 was the worst loss of his career. So, he sees this the same way.
And don't forget, Rafa was in top form in both W losses. He was just coming from RG win. That means his level and confidence were high. And in 2009 he was confused and his level dropped. He said it himself. That he was used to chase Fed all the time, so now that he did it, he lost motivation after AO 09 and W 08. It was new unknown territory for him. And his clay form wasn't the same as in 2008. So, I don't see Soderlng loss as bad.
But, look in the grand scheme of things losses like that happen to everyone not named Fed. Sampras had tons of those losses too, so no big deal.
I think Fed set too higher standard with his finals/semis streak. We got spoiled. If we remove Fed, what Nadal did is spectacular.
Fans focus on tiny flaws of players too much. Like it's a big deal.
