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1/24/11 2:16 PM | Cheryl Murray
The Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov pulled off the upset of the tournament so far with a five-set victory over world No. 4 Robin Soderling in his debut Australian Open.
The first set of this unpredictable five-set match was all Soderling. Dolgopolov was playing with visible nerves and struggled to win points, much less games. The Swede appeared poised for an easy victory and a short day at the office.
Unfortunately for Soderling, the Ukrainian found his groove in the second set. In the space of a few points Dolgopolov started moving Soderling around and completely robbed the Swede of his rhythm. Suddenly Soderling started missing forehands and the break advantage he earned at 2-1 evaporated. The world No. 4 won just one more game in the set and looked increasingly out-of-sorts with each lost point.
Soderling took a walkabout in the third set. His forehand, which let him down in the second completely went away in the third. Soderling won a total of four points on Dolgopolov’s serve and seven on his own serve. The Ukrainian, who was given almost no chance to win, found himself 2 sets to 1 up on his opponent.
Soderling put up a fight in the fourth. For a brief period of time the magnitude of the moment seemed to get to Dolgopolov. The Swede went up 4-0 with a pair of service breaks; he gave one back but still successfully served out the set. It would go to five.
Riding the wave of momentum into the fifth, Soderling started off with an immediate break of the Dolgopolov serve. Then inexplicably, the No. 4 seed completely fell apart on his own serve, committing 3 unforced errors in that game alone. After a neat hold from the Ukrainian, Soderling once against stepped up to the service line and once again completely fell apart under the weight of Dolgopolov’s groundstrokes.
Playing like a seasoned veteran, Dolgopolov snagged a 5-2 lead and put the pressure on Soderling to serve for his match survival. Despite some truly outstanding shot-making from Dolgopolov, Soderling managed to fight off three match points before finally succumbing.
Dolgopolov will take on the winner of Andy Murray and Jurgen Melzer in the quarterfinals.
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