{"id":6049,"date":"2014-03-18T20:27:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T20:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/?p=6049"},"modified":"2015-09-20T01:56:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T05:56:27","slug":"alexandr-dolgopolov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/blogs\/brian-canever\/alexandr-dolgopolov\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandr Dolgopolov – A Brian Canever Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alexandr<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite falling to Roger Federer in a merely one-hour long semifinal, Alexandr Dolgopolov\u2019s run at Indian Wells was still one of the stories of the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian all-courter made headlines when he defeated world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the third round 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) \u2013 only one month after losing in straight sets to the Spaniard in the final of the inaugural Rio Open.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the victory on its own that caught the eye, but the manner in which Dolgopolov achieved it.<\/p>\n\n

On one hand, the 25-year-old hustled Nadal around the court on every point, swatting at every return ball and powering vicious, angled forehands to set himself up for easy volleys or drop shots; the latter his weapon of choice<\/a>, as Viktor Troicki experienced first-hand at the 2011 French Open.<\/p>\n

When he wasn\u2019t winning points, however, he was committing the simplest of unforced errors, often digging himself into unnecessary holes, as has been the norm throughout his career. By the end of the match, he had 49 unforced errors to Nadal\u2019s 23, despite hitting 19 more winners.<\/p>\n

In California, \u201cDolgo\u201d then went on to upset world No. 13 Fabio Fognini, followed by No. 12 Milos Raonic in straight sets to secure his ill-fated encounter with the Swiss, who went on to lose a three-set final to Novak Djokovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3).<\/p>\n

Dolgopolov\u2019s explosive, entertaining showing at the highest level of the ATP Tour is not surprising considering his indisputable talent\u00a0\u2013 though unexpected based on his tournament record in the past year.<\/p>\n

After bursting onto the scene in 2011, defeating first Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and then Robin\u00a0S\u00f6derling on his way to the Australian Open quarterfinals, and winning titles at the 2011 Umag Open and 2012 Citi Open, Dolgopolov failed to make it past the third round of any Masters or Grand Slam event until Indian Wells.<\/p>\n\n

During this period, he also parted ways with previous coach Jack Reader of Australia,\u00a0who once claimed,\u00a0\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t try to teach this,\u201d when referring to the player\u2019s unpredictable mix of trick shots \u2013 a feature that, along with his unique choice of headband, makes him one of the more unique players in professional tennis.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, after the run at Indian Wells and earlier at the 500-level Rio Open, this looks to be Dolgo\u2019s year.<\/p>\n

The exuberant player will next feature at the Miami Masters, where he is the 22nd seed and has a bye in the first round. In the second round, he will face the winner of the match between Jarkko Nieminen and Bernard Tomic.<\/p>\n

Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite falling to Roger Federer in a merely one-hour long semifinal, Alexandr Dolgopolov\u2019s run at Indian Wells was still one of the stories of the tournament. The Ukrainian all-courter made headlines when he defeated world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the third round 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) \u2013 only one month after losing in straight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[525],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-6049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brian-canever","tag-alexandr-dolgopolov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisfrontier.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}