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 TORONTO : Roger Federer has experienced the worst year of his five-year reign atop tennis, even if much of it could be explained away. Mononucleosis early in the year explained his struggles then; the emergence of Rafael Nadal explained his struggles, albeit at the game's highest levels, since.
Wednesday night, there was no such explanation. There was just a baffling tournament-opening 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to unheralded Gilles Simon of France, ranked 22nd in the world, which ended any chance of a rematch of the world No. 1's epic Wimbledon final loss to the second-ranked Nadal earlier this month.
It has been a little more than two weeks since that match - the greatest ever played, more or less - and neither player had played since. The Rogers Cup this week, with its unforgiving field on unfamiliar hard court, was a dangerous way to return to the game.
Wednesday, after nearly six hours of rain delay, Nadal overcame some early jitters and won. Federer's jitters, by contrast, arrived late, and were fatal.
"The problem was my game today," said a downcast Federer, who wasted no time in stalking into the post-match interview room. "I had enough to put him away."
But it didn't happen. Simon is no sucker - he won in Indianapolis last week - and the bright-eyed 23-year-old played an unflinching final two sets.
Instead, it was the Swiss star who flinched. Federer ended the second set with four unforced errors on his usually deadly forehand. He ended the match the same way: Serving to tie the third set, he unravelled, sending forehands, wide, into the net, long and long.
When the time came to be mentally tough, he faltered. When the time came to be solid, he wobbled. Shock is a pale description of what it was like to witness.
"I don't know what to say right now," Simon said. "I am so confident, actually (after winning last week) and I just wanted to fight, to play a nice game, a nice match. And that's what I did tonight, so I am so proud of it."
In the fourth set, Federer broke Simon's serve, and seemed primed to take the match, but was broken right back. Again Federer broke Simon - concluding an extended rally with a gasp-inducing forehand pass - and again Simon broke back to make it 4-4. From there, it was Federer who failed. Afterwards, he pretended not to remember some of his errant forehands - "It's all a blur right now" - but he is a human tennis encyclopedia. Either he was shocked into incoherence, or he could not face what had just occurred.
When asked if Wimbledon had drained him, Federer just smiled wryly and said,
"You wouldn't have asked me that if I would have won, right? So I guess."
Simon, meanwhile, played five matches last week and finished strong. Perhaps the Federer mystique is starting to fade, just enough, every so often.
"I don't know. I mean, maybe some players are used to his game, but it was not my case because it was the first time I played against him," the ebullient Simon said. "It's so impressive when you enter into the central court against Federer. It's (like), come on. Where am I? I look, and, yeah, there is my parents, here my coach.
"For sure this is my best victory, even if he's not the No. 1 next week."
That day may come, if not quite so soon. Nadal had far fewer problems, though the world's No. 2 had also practised on hard court for barely more than a week. The Spaniard fell behind Ottawa-born American qualifier Jesse Levine 4-1in the first set, faced two break points serving at 1-4, but survived.
After Levine failed on both break chances, an awakened Nadal won 11 of the next 13 games, and the final score read 6-4, 6-2.
"Today wasn't my best match," said Nadal, 22. "I have to be better, that's for sure."
"I think I was in that zone where I wasn't sure really where I was," said Levine, ranked 123rd. "And then I came to my senses and realized I'm playing Nadal on stadium court."
Out across the suddenly sunny grounds, the field's quality was speedily revealed. No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 5 David Ferrer of Spain, No. 7 James Blake of the United States, and No. 10 Richard Gasquet of France, all advanced, but seeds that fell in the second round included No. 12 Tommy Robredo of Spain (6-3, 6-4 by Marin Cilic of Croatia, ranked 44th), No. 13 Fernando Verdasco, also of Spain (6-4, 6-7, 6-4 to Robin Soderling of Sweden), No. 14 Fernando Gonzalez, of Chile (6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to Jose Acasuso of Chile) and talented but erratic No. 16 seed Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic (6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to Igor Andreev of Russia.)
The man with the longest day was Russian Marat Safin, the enigmatic former No. 1 whose match with American Sam Querrey had been delayed by the deluge Tuesday night. Safin finished the first-round match with 6-3, 6-3 victory, then advanced to face ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka late Wednesday night.
During the interminable rain delay, the most exciting thing to happen all day was a Weather Network report that waters were shooting 2.5 feet out of storm sewers in Oshawa, Ont., and a ladder was blowing across a yard in Pickering, Ont.
As a result, the tournament's rain policy was triggered, and there were long lines to exchange tickets for future sessions, either this year or for future editions of the tournament.
Afterwards, the excitement was due to the toppling of a giant, by his own hands. The king - is he still the king? - is dead this week, even if he's still playing doubles. The tournament is still alive, and still vibrant. But along with Federer, the loss it suffered last night was both great, and unexpected.
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