PETE ZIEBRON
Alexandr Dolgopolov retired from the ATP Tour today. His game was always fun to watch and he provided a few memorable moments that I will share with you here.
In 2011 on the old Court #2 at Indian Wells, Dolgopolov was playing Juan Martin del Potro. The Argentine would win a tightly contested match 7-6(3) 6-3 but what made this memorable for me as well as the nearly capacity crowd was what happened on Dolgopolov's serve in the middle of the opening set. The Ukrainian served three consecutive lets. After the third, he just started laughing uncontrollably. A fun moment in an otherwise tense match.
Jim Courier joined John McEnroe in the booth for one of Dolgopolov's matches at the US Open. The Dolgopolov service motion has always looked effortless as he simply snaps into action, tosses the ball and fires away, time and time and time again with little to no variation in the technique. Courier accurately described this motion as looking like a "jack-in-the-box" and McEnroe laughed hysterically. Two points later, McEnroe just uttered "jack-in-the-box" and continued laughing. Jim Courier absolutely nailed it, he certainly looks like a jack-in-the-box on every service motion. Too bad we will no longer see it on tour.
In 2017, Kevin Anderson arrived in Cincinnati having won 10 of his last 13 matches and playing solid tennis. Two weeks later, he would reach the US Open final, falling to Rafael Nadal. However, at the Western & Southern Open, he played Dolgopolov on sunken Court 9 in the opening round. My vantage point for the entire match was front row directly behind the server on the end opposite Center Court. Dolgopolov withstood 24 aces from the South African, did not hit a double fault and also did not allow any break point opportunities en route to an impressive 6-4 7-6(6) victory.
Sam Querrey was asked in press in Cincinnati in 2010 about his next opponent, Dolgopolov. Querry attempted a few times to pronounce his surname, unsuccessfully. Doll-gop-a-lov, then Dole-ga-pawl-ov. Several broadcasters stumbled over the pronunciation over the years.
Somewhat surprisingly, Dolgopolov has only been requested for press conferences 16 times in his career. One was in 2015 in Cincinnati following a 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2 loss in the semifinals to Novak Djokovic. En route to the semis, the Ukrainian came through qualifying and defeated: Bernie Tomic, Jerzy Janowicz, and Tomas Berdych in the main draw. Dolgopolov actually had the match on his racquet in the second set tiebreaker.
My favorite portion of the presser following the match was about his clothing line:
Q. The design on your shirt looks like the Ukrainian flag. Is that intentional?
ALEXANDR DOLGOPOLOV: Yeah, that's the Dog Collection, actually, so made a little bit with the colors of Ukraine. It's quite nice from home to do that, and I'm happy with it.
The Dog Collection.
Dolgopolov won 3 singles titles: Umag in 2011, Washington in 2012 and Buenos Aires in 2017. In addition he won the doubles title at Indian Wells with Xavier Malisse in 2011. His career record in singles on the ATP Tour is 221- 201.
Alexandr "The Jack-in-the-Box" Dolgopolov will be missed!
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