Teymuraz Gabashvili battles past Konstantin Kravchuk; moves into the second round – UNICEF Open 2011
In an all Russian duel, Teymuraz Gabashvili struggled past his qualifier compatriot, Konstantin Kravchuk in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 three set thriller at the 2011 UNICEF Open, a grass court tournament held in s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
After earning this victory over his fellow 26-year-old, Gabashvili secured a second round spot in this event on Monday.
World number 142 Gabashvili took two hours to down his fellow Russian, ranked 14 places below him, at this ATP World Tour 250 series event on their first meeting. He has now taken the lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against
Kravchuk.
Georgian born Gabashvili smoothly entered the court and bagged entire serves by rolling the balls expertly onto the lines. He saved the only breakpoint faced and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage
to seal the opener by winning six games to four. Gabashvili produced a slightly lower first serve share of 68 percent as opposed to his rival’s 71 percent but earned a mind blowing 95 percent win on it.
Kravchuk went on overdrive to pull the equaliser. He re-created his magic and after Gabashvili held his opening serve in the second game, the lower ranked Russian unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next five games in
a row and clinched with a breadstick. Despite clobbering a lower first sere share of 52 percent as opposed to his opponent’s 65 percent, he registered an impressive 73 percent win on it. In addition to this, the qualifier saved both breakpoints conceded.
Gabashvili got back on track in the decider and got the coveted break in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Although he lost his serve in the third game and levelled the scores at 2-2, the higher ranked Russian got another break
to eventually pocket the set with a 6-4 score line.
A former world number fifty-nine, Gabashvili has had a drastic season so far. Regardless of making a quarter-final berth at San Jose and Houston, he was ousted from opening or second round from all of the tournaments he entered.
The beaming Russian was standing on a five match losing streak before entering here but it seems he turned the tables around and is much more confident on grass courts.
He will next face Spanish wild card entrant, Javier Marti who stunned his eighth seeded compatriot, Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight sets to reach this spot. Marti warded off late resistance from the seed to eventually clinch the
match with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory on Sunday.
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