Alexandr Dolgopolov sees off Igor Andreev to move into the last eight – Brisbane International 2012
Ukrainian third seed, Alexandr Dolgopolov, fought a tough battle against the Russian, Igor Andreev, before confirming the quarter-final spot in the second round of Brisbane International tournament on Wednesday. It was the second
battle between the two contenders and again the world number 15, Dolgopolov, proved his worth and won an enthralling three-setter in two hours 38 minutes with a cumulative score of 6-7(3), 7-6(9), 6-2.
It was the first round of the tournament last year when these two players were drawn together; with a straight set win, the Ukrainian stamped his authority that time but this time he faced a promising fight from the 28-years-old
Andreev. Spectators enjoyed every bit of it and praised the performance put forth by the underdog by giving him a standing ovation at the end of the match.
Cautious start from both players helped them in bagging their respective serve games at the beginning of the contest. At the score of 2-2, both players traded breaks and continued to capitalize on their serves that ended up at
6-6. Tie breaker was enforced; with all the experience in the world, Dolgopolov was hot favourite to come on top but to everyone’s surprise it was the underdog Andreev that proved his worth.
Trailing one set down, third seed needed to bounce back into the contest with some early blows but failed to hold on to his serve in the fourth game and lost it. Everyone sensed an upset but third seed hit back with a vital serve
break in the seventh game and held his serve in the next game to level the score at 4-4. With not much drama in the upcoming games tie breaker was again enforced and this time it was the third seed Ukrainian that stayed calm to bag the second set.
Russian was severely tortured in the last set with clever game play from the third seed. With one break in the second game, third seed took 3-0 lead upfront. Andreev finally managed to hold on to his serve but it was not good enough
as he needed to break his rival’s serve in order to level the score. Score went to 5-2 and Russian failed to stay composed at this do or die situation; lost the game on his serve that gifted the victory to his opponent.
Alexandr Dolgopolov sees the sixth seed, Radek Stepanek, in the quarter-final of the Brisbane International.
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