Dubai, The unexpected Victory.
Hi All,
As you can tell from the title, I just won an ATP 500 series
doubles title in Dubai. It was totally unexpected as I was playing for the
first time with Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.
It was funny in that up until the week before in Marseille,
we both did not have a partner. I looked at the players that were going and
made a calculated guess that with my ranking I needed to play with a player
ranked around 30 or better. I asked a couple of other players, but the only one
that was available was Dmitry and after asking him and some convincing, we
agreed to play.
I came a few days earlier as I had qualifying rounds in
singles. The day I landed however, I got sick and was caring a cold and sore
throat with a congested nose for the qualifying rounds. My first match was
against a wild card luckily, so managed to win that one, but then lost final
round qualifying. I then heard that there was a potential lucky loser spot for
Lopez who might not be coming and I was the first player to get it. So when
that was confirmed and I did get the lucky loser, I drew Igor Andreev of
Russia.
Ironically that was also who I had drawn in the first round
of the doubles too. Dmitry and I, managed to win that match comfortably,
however in the singles Andreev’s whipping forehand was too much for me. I was
feeling better physically, but was still drained from my cold.
Our second round doubles was against Knowles and Bhupahti.
They were seeded second and are a good team. I had booked my flight for the following
day and was not expecting too much. After an ugly first set, with not too good
tennis, we played a good tie-breaker and then got better and better to win 7-6,
6-2. So, I had to change my flight again and booked it for the next day again.
We now had to play a very inform Ferrer, and the talented and popular Safin in
the semi finals.
After Ferrer demolished Gasquet in the singles semi finals
of the singles, he came back and played doubles against us. He was still
playing well and after us leading 5-3, 40-15, we found ourselves down 7-5, 2-1
a break of serve, before it all changed again for us win 5-7, 6-3, 10-6. There
was some friendly get sometimes tense rivalry between Safin and Dmitry and
luckily we ended up coming on top of that one. Safin demolished a racquet in
the final tie-break, the third one I have seen him break this week, and that is
just the ones I have seen. We were now in the finals and so had to change my
flight again.
In the finals we drew Linstedt and Damm, who have already
won 2 ATP events this year and were playing well. They started really well and
we lost the first set, however, got better and broke early in the second set
and held to win it 6-3. In the match tie-breaker, we played well and came up on
top winning 10-5 and taking the title.
The trophy is a massive sailing ship, that luckily they said
they will be able to ship, otherwise it would have been really difficult to
travel with. I am now off to South Africa for the Davis Cup against Macedonia,
hoping it will be a success. We have been having a good record so far and hope
to keep it going.
Now, playing with Dmitry is always entertaining. I never
know what will come out of his mouth. He is constantly sarcastic in his humour,
but not in an offensive way, but more funny, but still always borderline on
controversial. It was definitely and experience playing with him, new and
different, unlike I have ever played with before. I seemed to work this week,
so was happy with the result.
Thanks all for reading, just wanted to share a little
insight into how the week went in Dubai,
Till next time, take care.
Rik