Alex Bogomolov battles past Filippo Volandri in round one – Qatar Open 2012
Sixth seeded Russian, Alex Bogomolov, had to labour a bit more than anticipated before he finally took down the 69th ranked, Filippo Volandri of Italy, in the opening round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Monday. The
world number 34 took almost two hours to conclude the three-setter at 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the round of 16 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
The 28-year-old was jolted down early in the contest when Volandri pocketed the opening set to get one up. The Italian dominance was broken by some quality display of baseline hitting from the sixth seeded Bogomolov in the following
set, as he made his way right back in the contest. Once getting into his winning groove, the Russian never turned back in the rest of the match and rocketed past his opponent in the final set to register his first victory of the 2012 ATP season.
It was the second time that Volandri has suffered a defeat at the hands of Bogomolov in singles encounters. The two men last met in s-Hertogenbosch last year and Bogomolov outplayed the Italian in straight sets, 7-6(2), 6-2, to
make a quarter-final berth in the tournament.
Volandri had an impactful start to the contest on Monday and launched a series of forays to earn some early points in the match, breaking his opponent in the third game to lead 2-1. Four successive serve breaks were witnessed later
in the set but Volandri kept his lead to claim the opening set at 7-5.
Bogomolov dropped his serve early again in the following set to trail 0-2 but made a tremendous recovery to turn the tables on his unseeded opponent later. He stung three more break points to close out the second set 6-4, levelling
the matchup at one set a piece.
The sixth seed Russian carried on with his winning norms in the final set and clinched 11 out of 12 first serve points en route to victory. Two serve breaks proved sufficient for him to close out the competition at 602, booking
a berth in the second round of the Qatar Open after a sweating battle.
Up next for Bogomolov in the round of 16 is the unseeded Spanish opponent, Albert Ramos, who outplayed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in the first round, 7-5, 6-2, to book a date with the sixth seed for a place in the quarter-finals
of the tournament.
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