Rogerio Dutra Silva overcomes Teymuraz Gabashvili in the round one – US Open 2012
In a first round match between two lower ranked players, Brazil’s world number 112, Rogerio Dutra Silva, fought back after getting 1-2 down to oust Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 to reach the next stage.
First blood was drawn by Gabashvili, as he needed a single break of serve in the first set to capture it 6-4.
The Russian player and his Brazilian rival won their serve in the first nine games of the second set to take the score to 5-4 in favour of the latter. Silva struck at that moment to triumph 6-4.
In the third set, Silva and Gabashvili traded a single break of serve to even out the proceedings at 6-6 and take it to a tie-breaker. The Russian contender grabbed a mini-break and capitalised on that to close it 7-6(5).
Silva started to play aggressively from the fourth set and the strategy paid off, as he pocketed opening three games to take a 3-0 lead. The Brazilian player maintained it till the end to win 6-4.
Both players fought for the win in the decider, as they did not drop their serve in the first six games to square off the score at 3-3. Silva struck in the seventh but lost his own serve in the 10th to take the proceedings
to 5-5. The Brazilian contestant broke Gabashvili again at that moment and held his following serve to grab it 7-5.
Silva has the biggest challenge ahead, as he is pitted against the world number two and defending champion, Novak Djokovic, in the second round.
Djokovic said, after his first round match, "I tried to analyse my game, and my game was great from the start to the end. It's also important for me to try to be as economical with the time I spend on the court as possible, but
obviously not underestimating an opponent. I played really focused, tried to get to the net also. It was great all in all."
Silva and Djokovic will be meeting for the first time on the ATP World Tour.
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