Flavio Cipolla stuns Alexandr Dolgopolov in opening round clash – China Open 2011
World number 19, Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov, suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the 95th ranked, Flavio Cipolla of Italy, in the opening round clash of the China Open on Monday afternoon.
The eighth seeded Ukrainian was blown away by the exceptional power hitting from the Italian qualifier, who wrapped up the three-setter 6-1, 1-6, 6-0, taking one hour and thirty five minutes of play to make it to the second round
of the ATP (association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 event.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of the Olympic Green Tennis Center, in Beijing, China, the contest witnessed sheer brilliance of the 95th ranked Cipolla. Despite of the error-ridden second set, the Italian absolutely
manhandled the eighth seed Dolgopolov to register his fifth victory of the running ATP season in style.
Cipolla avenged his defeat from Dolgopolov, who took him down 6-0, 7-5, 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, in the round of 64 of the US Open this year. The Italian blast past the opening set but lost his way through the second to let the Ukrainian
back in the game. Cipolla regrouped in the final set to over-run his opponent in style and levelled the head-to-head series against Dolgopolov at 1-1.
27-year-old Italian veteran took hold of the game in the opening set, breaking the eighth seed in his opening two serve games to rocket away to a 5-0 lead in the contest. Dolgopolov squandered away a vital break opportunity in
the sixth game and submitted the opener to his opponent at 1-6.
Tide turned in the following set, as the Ukrainian came out firing at Cipolla, breaking his serve twice in the set to reach 5-1. Dolgopolov levelled the matchup at one-all, after pocketing the second set at 6-1, but lost all his
steam in the final set to let Cipolla back in business. The Italian launched his onslaught upon the eighth seeded Dolgopolov, nailing three straight serve breaks to wrap up the third set in no time. Cipolla finished the final at 6-0 to earn a place in the
second round of the tournament.
Cipolla will take on the world number 23, Fernando Verdasco of Spain, in the next round to fight for a place in the quarter-finals of the China Open. Verdasco eased past the unseeded Frenchman, Michael Llodra, in straight sets
6-2, 6-4, in the opening round to meet Cipolla in the round of 16.
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