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Erste Bank Open (Vienna), first round
Grigor Dimitrov / Stan Wawrinka – Rajiv Ram / Joe Salisbury 4-6, 6-3, 6-10
Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka were eliminated in the first round of the doubles tournament in Vienna after losing in three sets to Rajiv Ram and Joe Salisbury. The Bulgarian and the Swiss showed a good game, but they were not precise enough in the key moments and that cost them the victory in the disputed clash.
Dimitrov and Wawrinka can bitterly regret the lost victory, as they had a huge advantage in winning second serve points, posting a 65% success rate against only 38% of their opponents. Also, our first racket and her teammate didn’t commit a single double fault, while Ram and Salisbury had four.
Dimitrov and Wawrinka took the lead in the first set, leading three times in the games, but their opponents invariably managed to even the score. Our first racket and Stanimal won again at 4-3, but immediately afterwards Ram and Salisbury played their strongest period in the match and made a decisive breakthrough, after which they won the set 6-4.
Dimitrov and Wawrinka played a very strong second set, comfortably leading 4-1 after an early break. This turned out to be the turning point, as the two continued to hold a three-game difference and won the set 6-3, taking the match to a tiebreaker.
However, it started much better for Ram and Salisbury, who immediately broke through and took a 3-0 lead. During the tiebreaker, Dimitrov and Wawrinka returned the intrigue, narrowing their gap to 3-4, but their opponents again broke through and took the lead at 7-3. Dimitrov and Wawrinka fought to the end, saving two games in a row, but still Ram and Salisbury won the tiebreak 10-6 and thus congratulated each other on the victory in the match.
TennisKafe.com
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