Donskoy/ Gabashvili upset third seeds Hutchins/Flemings in opening round – Kremlin Cup 2011
Russian wildcard entrants, Evgeny Donskoy and Teymuraz Gabashvili upset the third seeded team of Brits, Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming, in their opening round match at the 2011 Kremlin Cup on Tuesday, 18th October at
the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia.
The locals riding the crowd support took one hour and fourteen minutes as they secured an easy, straight-sets 6-4, 6-4 win over the third seeded Brits.
Winning the toss the third seeds opened serve and comfortably placed themselves on the scoreboard followed immediately by the unseeded tandem of Donskoy and Gabashvili. Despite being lower ranked, the Russian matched blow for blow
with the third seeds as they kept the scoreboard levelled at all times. Tied for the first eight games, neither team let up nor took the lead. It was only in the ninth game that the Russians capitalised off an errant stroke from the Brits to go 5-4 in the
lead before serving out the set to secure an easy 6-4 win.
Despite hitting a lower a 61 percent win on their first serves with no aces or double faults, the Russians were able to ride a single breakpoint opportunity to go one up in the set score.
The second set started off on even footing as both teams held their opening serves. However, carrying over their form from the first set, the Russians broke the Brits to go 2-1 in the score only to be broken back in the next to
two games each. Determined to take the lead the Russians came out firing in the fifth game as they clinched a perfect game breaking their opponents to secure a 3-2 lead, extending it to 4-2 on their service moments later. As the pair continued to win on their
serves, the scoreboard read 5-4 when the Russians served out the tenth game to secure a 6-4 win and seal their straight sets victory.
Donskoy and Gabashvili now move into the second round of the event where they will either play their compatriot wildcards, Victor Baluda and Andrey Kuznetsov, or the unseeded duo of Philippine Conrad Treat Huey and Canadian Adil
Shamasdin.
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