Today, Alexandr Dolgopolov was scheduled to make his doubles debut at Los Cabos Open where he plays along Sergiy Stakhovsky, but heavy rain postponed his doubles debut. There’s no doubt that the last couple of months haven’t been the best for the Ukrainian who lost in the first round of his last two tournaments. However, Dolgopolov has proven he likes to play on Mexican ground as his past results at Acapulco has shown, including a semifinal this year.
VAVEL USA had an exclusive sit down with Alexandr Dolgopolov ahead of his first round match against, Horacio Zeballos in which he talked about his last results, his expectations coming into the tournament and injuries.
Disappointing results
After a disappointing second round loss to Daniel Evans in Wimbledon, Dolgopolov has participated in three more tournaments. At the Citi Open, he suffered another early exit after losing to Sam Querrey followed by a first round loss at the Rogers Cup and a second round loss last week at Atlanta. “Confidence wise not very high because I lost the last two first rounds, obviously, I would like to have more wins,” he said before admitting he’s been struggling with some injuries in the past year. “I had some injuries in my body which were not letting me compete full, so I had to play with what I had. Sometimes you’re hurt a little bit and you have to play a tournament.”
On Tuesday, Dolgopolov will face Horacio Zeballos. This meeting will be the first between them since 2009 at St. Petersburg where the Argentine won in straight sets. “Yeah, I play Zeballos in the first round which is a solid player. I think he played the quarterfinals in the last tournament in Atlanta, so obviously, it’s not going to be an easy match to start with.”
Past results in Mexico
The Ukrainian had participated at the Mexican Open in four occasions and has reached the quarterfinals or semifinals in all of them. Just this year he gave the surprise of the tournament when he defeated the top seed and defending champion, David Ferrer in the second round before falling to Bernard Tomic. However, despite his positive results on Mexican ground he is still aware that it doesn’t mean he will get the same results. “You can say it’s the same country but on the other hand it’s completely different. It’s a different city, it’s a different place, everything is different. It’s similar because it’s on the coast, also evening matches, so hopefully that will help me to play better. I hope that the conditions suit me good as well, but you can’t say that if you play good in Acapulco you’re gonna play good here.” he said before admitting he doesn’t feel very confident coming into the tournament. “So, I hope that’s gonna be the way that it was there,I don’t have confidence in that.”
“It’s quite slow, it’s a bit humid. I mean the conditions are similar to Acapulco. We’ll see how it goes on the matches.” Dolgopolov said after being asked if he had tested the courts and explains how he thinks this surface is going to help his game. “I think so, I like slow courts which bounce higher, also I’m in time to get to most of the balls and I can use a lot of angles. So, I like slow hard courts.”
Injuries and expectations
Dolgopolov admits that injuries have been the main reason of his bad results this season. When asked about his current physical condition he confessed he has been struggling with some pain. “I’m feeling a little bit of pain in back which is not terrible, but is there, which is normal for a tennis player. Over the season you’re hurt somewhere, it’s rare that you play with zero pain, so I’m not injured which is good. I’m normal I would say.”
At Los Cabos Open he won’t only play singles, he is also competing for the doubles title alongside Sergiy Stakhovsky. He currently has one doubles title which he won in 2011 at Indian Wells with Xavier Malisse as his partner. In that final, they defeated Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. His last doubles final happened last year at the Brisbane International.
However, he’s trying to keep realistic expectations for the tournament. “I mean as I said I lost the first two first rounds, so I can’t say it’s winning the tournament. If I can go out and do my best in the first round and then go match by match. I can’t name a result I would be happy about. I just need to keep winning matches.”
Alexandr Dolgopolov was scheduled to play his first doubles match today, but because of heavy rain all matches were cancelled for the day. Dolgopolov will play his opening single match against Horacio Zeballos tomorrow in the second turn of the Grandstand.