Philipp Kohlschreiber stuns Alexandr Dolgopolov; makes it to the final eight – Gerry Weber Open 2011
German Philipp Kohlschreiber pleased his home crowd after upsetting seventh seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets at Gerry Weber Open 2011, a grass court event held in Halle, Germany. He registered a 6-3, 7-6(5)
victory over the 22-year-old Ukrainian to advance into the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Ranked 49th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Kohlschreiber warded off late resistance to overpower the Ukrainian, ranked 28 places above him, in straight sets. After earning this victory on their
first meeting, the German took the lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Dolgopolov.
27-year-old was all fuelled up with the support from his home crowd and entered in full confidence at Gerry Weber Stadion. The German pocketed his entire serves with exquisite forehands from his arsenal of skills and despite clobbering
a lower first serve share of 48 percent as compared to Dolgopolov’s 65 percent, he registered a superb 92 percent win on it. Kohlschreiber faced zero breakpoint and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage in the sixth game to clinch
the opener with a 6-3 win.
The German kept the momentum rolling into the final set and held his opening serve in the second game to level the scores by 1-1. He maintaining consistency in his gameplay and smoothly held his remaining serves. However, Kohlschreiber
failed to convert both breakpoint opportunities to his advantage and took the set to tie-breaker. He dominated in it to bag the set with a 7-6(5) score line.
"I’ve always played here really well," said the happy German after the match. "The court is really fast, but somehow I enjoy playing here. I just have good memories. I just have to enjoy the fact that I can win matches that were
tight in the second set. It was pretty tight, also emotionally."
Kohlschreiber has had a good season so far. He made quarter-final berths at Auckland and Munich and reached final at Dusseldorf. Regardless of losing in the opening round at French Open, he re-focused into the game in this ATP
World Tour 250 series event and battled past his compatriot qualifier, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in a three setter nail biter match in the opening round.
He will next face the defending champion, Lleyton Hewitt. The Australian displayed top notch performance in this tournament last year and upset Roger Federer in the final to win the title. He is in good shape this season as well
as he trashed lucky loser, Argentinean Leonardo Mayer and Italian Andreas Seppi in straight sets in the pre-quarter rounds.
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