No go for Dolgo « Milos Raonic

26Feb/11Off

No go for Dolgo

I stayed up "late" to watch the Ferrer vs. Dolgopolov match live last night (it ended shortly after 1:30AM Newfoundland time). I was looking forward to an entertaining match, given the apparent clash of playing styles that would be employed. It's hard to know what to expect from a player like Dolgopolov, but as a general rule you know that Ferrer will work hard and play a solid match.

The first set was close, but neither player was doing well to protect their serve. First serve percentages were low (Alexandr was at 43%), and service breaks were had by all. Dolgo was able to capitalize on some shaky play to capture the first set, but then the trajectory of the match started to change.

Ferrer started playing like Ferrer. He wasn't perfect, but he cleaned up his game enough to let Dolgopolov gift the rest of the match away. Dolgo made a lot of shots, but he missed even more. His inconsistency was his undoing. And you just can't afford to be inconsistent against a player like Ferrer, who ultimately went on to win the nearly 2-hour-long match 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. The stats aren't very impressive, but here they in all their ugly glory:

Top seed David Ferrer (ESP) will face fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in the finals tonight in Acapulco. Almagro is currently on a history-making run -- if he can defeat Ferrer, he'll become the first player ever to win three out of the four Latin American clay tournaments in the same season. Read more about it here.

As for watching the final, Rogers Sportsnet One will be airing the match live beginning at 10:00PM ET. It doesn't look it'll be on the other regional channels, unfortunately. I was hoping to watch it in HD, as I only get Sportsnet One in standard definition here in Newfoundland.

-multi