It is sad to see but it looks like the demise of Rafa Nadal has well and truly begun. The Spanish clay-court whiz bowed out of Wimbledon in yesterday’s round two match-up, but it was his opponent who grabbed all the headlines.

Dustin Brown, ranked number 102 in the world, doesn’t look like your traditional tennis pro, sporting dreadlocks that have remained uncut for the best part of 19 years. The 30-year-old German player heralded the victory as his finest day in tennis and carries with him a rather remarkable backstory. Below from the Daily Mail:

Born in Germany, his parents decided to emigrate (or in his father’s case return) to Jamaica when he was 11.

After playing junior tennis in the Caribbean, his family relocated to Germany in 2004 to try and achieve his dream of becoming professional. 

His parents took out a loan to purchase him a VW camper van to enable him to tour the European tennis circuit, which he described as being ‘far from ideal’ but a ‘lot of fun’. He drove, slept in and cooked in the van as he travelled on the tours between 2004 and 2007. 

At times he survived on complimentary sandwiches, and stayed up all night to string rackets for other players for five euros a time. 

Brown changed allegiance to Germany back in 2009, citing a lack of funding in Jamaica.

Will we see a Cool Runnings type movie based on his exploits? We can only dream, but if they do here’s hoping they can get Doug E. Doug on board.

[source:dailymail]