Dustin Brown adds himself to the list of men who can't defend their monumental win against Rafael Nadal. The last three years, each man who defeats Nadal at Wimbledon cannot seem to get passed the next round, Dustin Brown was no different. Viktor Troicki quickly brought the serve and volleying German down to Earth today with a serving clinic in the first two sets recording 19 aces.
In the first set, most of the opportunities were for Dustin Brown having had four break points and was in each of Troicki's service games. There was shotmaking galore by Brown continuing his "nothing to lose" type of game plan, which is also his playing style and has been since he has been on tour. On Troicki's fifth break point of the set, he converted with a good low return to close out the set 6-4.
The second set started out with much more hope by the German, snatching an early break at 1-1 and pumping up the crowd hoping he can get back into the match. Troicki, who has played stellar on grass this year, had different plans however and broke him right back hushing the crowd. The second set is where the Serb's serve really started to shine, winning 23/25 (91%) of first serve points and smacking 12 aces. With neither player facing another break point the rest of the set, the two found themselves in a second set tiebreak. It was in the tiebreak where Troicki continued his stellar serving, not missing a single first serve. He would end up winning the tiebreak by seven points to three (7-3).
It was Dustin Brown who put on a clinic in the third set. Brown served and volleyed on each service point and traded holds until 5-4, where he hit three miraculous forehands which reminded us why he was in the third round in the first place. Brown converted on his only break point of the set to steal the third from the Serb.
Just when you thought that maybe Dustin Brown would put up another fight and possibly rally his way back, Troicki breaks him to start the fourth set. It seemed as if Brown had given it all he could at that point. The unpredictability of his style came into play hitting four double faults in key parts of the set. Troicki didn't let him sniff a break point and he closed out the match with a second break of Brown.
Troicki defeated Brown with a score of 6-4, 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3
Although Brown's cinderella story came to an end, he gained quite a few fans. His serve and volleying style is a breath of fresh air in the modern game today. Brown came into the net an astonishing 96 times! Brown will make his way back into the top 100 and should get directly into the U.S Open in August. Expect the crowd favorite to try and make another bracket busting upset.