THIS wasn't the interpretation of 'Vamos Rafa' that anyone had in mind.

For the second successive year, Rafael Nadal was heading back to Mallorca from SW19 in a hurry last night, after departing a tournament which he was twice won by a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 scoreline against an inspired Steve Darcis of Belgium.

Not only was this a full round earlier than last year's earth shattering dismissal by Lukas Rosol – the Czech who, as fates would have it, was making his own retreat from South West London yesterday evening – it was the first time the Spaniard had ever fallen at the first hurdle at any grand slam event.

Darcis is one of a number of enterprising Belgian players who faced Great Britain in Davis Cup duty recently, but few if any had the temerity to call a result like this. By the numbers, the 29-year-old was playing as the 135th best player in the world – his career high is 44 – and in 12 of his previous 18 grand slam appearances, it was he who has been heading home after the first round stage. The 29-year-old had won just one of his previous matches at the All England Club, and just two tour level matches all year long.

By contrast, since he returned to the tour following knee surgery in Chile in February, Nadal had lost just twice, both in finals. Prior to yesterday, the remaining 43 of his 45 matches had all ended in a Nadal victory, including wins in all seven of the other tournaments in which he has taken part, the most notable of which was last month's record-breaking eighth French Open title.

No wonder then that the Spaniard was left facing an inquisition afterwards. The 27-year-old said there was no comparison between this defeat and last year's setback and, as ever, refused to make excuses, even though by the end he appeared to be favouring his strapped left knee while his opponent was scampering to all points of the court and throwing his body to the ground like some demented Boris Becker. He heaped praise on his opponent and felt it was unfair to suddenly cast blame on his schedule, even if the knock-on effect of his clay court commitments had left him unable to participate in his planned grass court warm-up event in Halle.

"Life continues, that's all," the Spaniard said. "The only thing that 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. But I have said before that grass is probably the toughest surface for me, because I have to move and play in a lower position than in the rest of the surfaces."

Nadal had only arrived in London on Tuesday, having missed Halle in order to concentrate on gym work and recovery work. "I tried my best out there in every moment," said the Mallorcan. "It was not possible for me this afternoon, and that's all. On grass it is difficult to adapt your game, when you don't have the chance to play before. I didn't have that chance this year, so it was tougher.

"But the calendar was for me perfect, winning seven tournaments of the nine, and playing two finals," he added. "I cannot say I will make something different because I will not. My season has been much better than what I have thought [it would be] five months ago. So I am happy about everything."

Not that happy. Nadal also dropped early round sets at Roland Garros to Daniel Brands and Martin Klizan and admitted to having suffered moments of uncertainty, not least as to whether he would ever reclaim his title at SW19.

"Obviously I have doubts: I have doubts on grass, I have doubts on clay and hard, for sure in indoor," he said. "You didn't see me with doubts in the first week of Roland Garros? Yes, I had a lot of doubts.

"The only thing I can do is keep working hard and giving myself chances about my game on this surface," he added. "I think and I hope to have a few more years to play here and to play at the right level. I was not able to play great this year or last year. But I'm going to keep trying."

If both men came into the match in wildly contrasting frames of mind, you would certainly never have guessed such contrasts from the way the Belgian's big-serving, clever angles and judicious charges to the net were driving the Spaniard to distraction from the very start. But then this is a man known as The Shark, a nickname he displays with a tattoo on his shoulder.

"Why? Because my star sign is fish," Darcis said. "I love sharks. It's like an S, like Steve. When I was young I did a lot of work with the sharks. So I know a lot from them. But I never swam with them, in the cage. Maybe someday."

There was certainly blood in the water yesterday. With that usually imperious Nadal forehand flying long with regularity, nine break points were chiselled out on the Spaniard's serve in the first set alone, only for a sudden loss of nerve from the Belgian to take us into a first set tie-break. He recovered his poise to take that 7-4, then nicked the crucial second set 10-8 in another epic breaker after both men had again traded service breaks. Typically Nadal fought to the death but his torment was over within three hours with a final booming Darcis ace down the tramlines.

The Belgian, who beat Tomas Berdych here at the opening match of the 2012 Olympics, admitted his opponent wasn't at his best but gloried in the best moment of his career.

"I had many injuries," he said. "And this year I had many private problems. Really, I couldn't play for two, three months."

You might say this is one tennis shark who has grasped a stunning victory from the jaws of defeat.