Rajeev Ram goes past Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
A major upset was witnessed at Atlanta Tennis Championships, when the American qualifier, Rajeev Ram drowned the fifth seeded Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov, in the opening round of the tournament on Tuesday afternoon at Atlanta, the
United States.
The local qualifier settled the clash against the fifth seed in a the most assertive manner, defeating Dimitrov in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, to move into the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour
250 event. The Bulgarian hung in the matchup for just one hour and fourteen minutes before succumbing to the hard-hitting Ram, ending his voyage at Atlanta Tennis Championships.
The American made use of his big serve to perfection and remained unbroken in the entire matchup, while stinging two serve breaks en route to victory. Dimitrov failed to beg sufficient points to take the better of his opponent
in the contest and his error-ridden game further assisted Ram to reach victory in no time.
Ram needed not much time to get his eye in the game and launched a series of attacking moves upon his opponent right away in the opener. The American qualifier amazingly banged 78 per cent of his serve on target and secured 17
out of 18 first serve points to get the upper hand in the first set. Dimitrov held his serve in the first game but had to surrender it to Ram in the third, letting the American break into a 3-1 lead in the set.
Ram carried on with his aggressive strategy, backed with rock solid baseline defence to prevent his opponent to craft even a single break opportunity in the opening set. Dimitrov couldn’t recover from the early loss suffered by
the serve break from the American and eventually submitted the first set to Ram at 4-6.
The following set was a complete replication of the opener, with Ram breaking serve in the third game to lead 3-1 once again in the contest. He secured 15 out of 17 first serve points and fully capitalized upon the silly mistakes
of his opponent to inch closer to victory. Dimitrov again failed to crack in a break point and had no choice but to surrender to the belligerent opponent in the second set at 4-6.
Ram will take on former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, in the second round for a place in the quarter-finals of Atlanta Tennis Championships. Hewitt was successful against the other American qualifier, Phillip Simmonds,
in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, in the opening round.
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