Nadal stunned by world No 135

The Spaniard, who two weeks ago was celebrating his return from a severe knee injury by winning his 12th grand slam title at Roland Garros, was beaten 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 by the Belgian Steve Darcis, a player ranked 130 places below him.

It was the first time in his career that Nadal had ever been defeated in the first round of a grand slam. Before Monday, he was the only player to have held a No1 ranking who could claim such a record. Nadal refused to be drawn on whether he was affected by injury, but appeared unwilling to slide on his knee and during the final set gingerly tested it several times and appeared to be limping.

"It is not the right day [to talk about it]. I tried my best out there in every moment. The opponent played well, I had my chances. I didn't make it," he said. "The only thing that I can say today is to congratulate Steve Darcis. He played a fantastic match. Everything that I will say today about my knee is an excuse, and I don't like to put [forward] any excuse when I'm losing a match like I lost today. He deserves not one excuse."

Nadal, seeded No5 here following his injury problems and scheduled to meet Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, was out for seven months after losing at Wimbledon last year in the second round. So much of the speculation before this year's Wimbledon had centred on which side of the draw Nadal would find himself in (Andy Murray's) and what that meant for the chances of Murray. All that talk was rendered redundant at the racket of Darcis, who had never beaten a top-five player in three previous attempts but gave a masterclass in grass court tennis that left Nadal bemused and broken.

Yet this was not the Nadal that a disbelieving No1 Court crowd had become used to down the years at Wimbledon and Darcis acknowledged as much. Time and again he found the net with the open court gaping and his ground strokes, normally so consistently powerful, were too often wayward.

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