Alexandr Dolgopolov crashed out by Flavio Cipolla in round two – Grand Prix Hassan II 2012
Second seed, Alexandr Dolgopolov, was edged out by the Italian contender, Flavio Cipolla, with a breadstick at the Grand Prix Hassan II 2012 on Wednesday. He suffered a 4-6, 1-6 shock at the hands of the world number 85 at this ATP (Association of Tennis
Professionals) clay court event held in Casablanca, Morocco.
The 23-year-old barely did anything against Cipolla and eventually exited from this ATP World Tour 250 series event with disappointment. As a result, the Italian stayed on track to grab his maiden ATP career title and took lead in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head
series by 2-1 against Dolgopolov.
Ranked 22nd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Dolgopolov entered the Complexe Al Amal with poise and held his serve in the opening game to take the initial lead. He continued hitting forehands and plucked his serves until the
seventh game. The Ukrainian failed to ward off the breakpoint he came across and consequently fell at 3-5. He was unsuccessful in finding any break opportunity and ultimately endured a 4-6 defeat.
The Ukrainian lost his track completely in the following set and swiped in his serve for the first time in the fifth game. Dolgopolov failed to seek any break chance and lost her serve again in the last game to gift away the breadstick.
All in all, Dolgopolov displayed dismal performance throughout the 62-minute venture. He clobbered a poor first serve share of 48 per cent as compared to the Italian’s 74 per cent and availed only 14 out of 22 points on it.
Cipolla on the other end will square off against the French challenger, Benoit Paire, in the final eight.
The fourth seed, Denis Istomin, also crashed out from the tournament against Russia’s Igor Andreev.
“It was a difficult match in difficult conditions [a lot of wind],” said the beaming Russian after the match. “I'm happy that I managed to win and qualify for the quarter-finals. This is a good event for me. I only played here once before and reached the
semi-final back in 2009. Denis has been playing very well lately and this win gives me a lot of confidence.”
The world number 100, Andreev, warded off eight out of nine breakpoints he came across and cashed in four out of 10 break opportunities to formulate a 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 success.
Andreev will next face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez who overpowered the former world number 12, Paul-Henri Mathieu, in straight sets to set-up this encounter.
Tags: