Teymuraz Gabashvili upsets Grigor Dimitrov in the US Men’s Clay Court Championship
Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili downed 8th seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals at the 2011 US Men’s Clay Court Championship on Wednesday.
Ranked 77th in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, Russian hasn’t had much progress this season except for reaching the quarter-finals at San Jose Challenger where he lost to 8th seeded
Croat Franco Skugor. However, the 25-year-old Gabashvili displayed his tremendous skills in this tournament and trashed the 19-year-old Bulgarian by 7-6(4), 6-3 in straight sets in the River Oaks Country Club at Houston. He also edge past Chilean qualifier
Paul Capdeville in straight sets in the first round and yet to lose a set in this tournament.
Although the booming Russian clobbered seven double faults and lost his serve three times in the opening set, he quickly covered it up by snatching the three breaks back and took the set to tiebreaker. Gabashvili prevailed
in it and eventually clinched the set with a 7-6(4) win. He produced an acceptable first serve share of 52 percent which was higher than Bulgarian’s 45 percent and earned an impressive 71 percent win on it.
Gabashvili carried his winning ways into the second set and held his opening serve plausibly. Later he just lost his serve once and held his remaining serves. In addition to this, he had a much better first serve share of
58 percent as compared to Dimitrov’s 41 percent and registered a convincing 56 percent win on it. The Russian sealed the set with a 6-3 win by converting two out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Dimitrov, who is seven ranks above the Russian in the ATP Rankings, is also in great shape this season and won the title at Cherbourg Challenger. In this match, he committed less double faults and converted four out of twelve
breakpoint opportunities to his advantage but still couldn’t overpower Gabashvili.
The Russian will next face American wild card entrant Ryan Sweeting who reached the quarter-finals after upsetting his 2nd seeded countryman Sam Querrey in a three set thriller.
World number 93, Sweeting bounced back to win against the world number 20 Querrey by 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 mouth-watering match. The 23-year-old Sweeting converted five out of ten breakpoint opportunities to his advantage and
saved an amazing 18 out of 24 breakpoints to clinch the match.
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