Two days after winning the Stuttgart title for just his second winner’s trophy of the season, Rafael Nadal saw his relative hot streak stopped in the first round of the AEGON Championships on Tuesday afternoon. Nadal led by a break in the third set but ultimately fell to Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4.
First it was Dolgopolov’s turn to squander a lead. The underdog Ukrainian seized a 5-3 advantage in the second-set tiebreaker and got a look at a match point with Nadal serving at 5-6, but the Spaniard snuffed it out with a big serve and won the next two points to force a decider.
The final momentum shift came starting with Nadal leading 4-2 in the third. Dolgopolov finished the match on a streak of four straight games, including breaks at 3-4 and 5-4. He finally clinched victory with a perfect forehand passing shot.
“Overall I’m really happy with the match,” Dolgopolov assured. “Not even because I beat Nadal, but the way I played and the way I fought back after a disappointing second set. I think overall I had a really good match.”
“I was a break up in the third, and then he played some good points,” Nadal reflected. “I missed a few balls. I played against an uncomfortable player in the first round here and I had my chance. I didn’t play a bad match, but matches here are sometimes decided by just a few things and I was not lucky enough today. I probably didn’t play enough aggressive when I was up a break at 4-3.”
Highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmrD24KaQt8]
Dolgopolov interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCHcStsq7g]
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second set lopez……