Alexandr Dolgopolov disposes of Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo to reach the quarter-finals – Citi Open 2012
Current world number 25, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine exhibited a display of sheer class and pure dominance to outmuscle the 34-year-old Spaniard, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, in the second round of the Citi Open on Wednesday’s eve. The second seeded Ukrainian barely took 54 minutes to registered a cracking straight sets victory over the world number 97, settling the final scores at 6-1, 6-3.
Facing each other for the second time in their professional careers, Hidalgo couldn’t do much against the fury of the second seeded hot favourite. He was clearly beaten by pace and agility of his 23-year-old opponent, who literally gave no chance to the Spaniard to come on top of him throughout the contest. Dolgopolov had defeated Hidalgo last year in Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil, in straight sets and replicated the similar sort of performance on Wednesday to lead 2-0 in the head-to-head record.
Dolgopolov’s game play was far superior to the Spaniard’s error-ridden one. The second seeded Ukrainian banged in 15 thudding aces and didn’t concede a single double fault in the entire matchup. He dropped merely three points on his first serve, securing 26 out of 29 points, and stung four out of seven break points to come out as the winner. On the other hand, Hidalgo kept on spilling sloppy unforced errors, including four double faults, and utterly failed to craft even a single break point in the whole contest to finish on the losing side in the end.
The contest took off with a serve break from Dolgopolov in the very first game, followed by a successful hold of serve to give him a 2-0 lead up front. Hidalgo could merely secure one serve game before the Ukrainian ignited his rage mode and going on a four-game rampage to rocket past his unseeded rival. Dolgopolov broke the Spanish serve in the fifth and seventh game to close out the opener with a breadstick at 6-1.
A much steady start was seen from Hidalgo in the following set, as he managed to hold his serve in the opening three games. The Ukrainian finally struck a cracking break of serve in the eighth game to lead 5-3, which left him serving for the match. Dolgopolov had no troubles at all in holding his serve and concluded a convincing victory at 6-3, booking a spot in the quarter-final rounds of the Citi Open. He will face the former world number four from USA, James Blake, in the next encounter.
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