By Chris Oddo | Tuesday, June 16, 2015

 

Alexandr Dolgopolov took a big bite out of Rafael Nadal's grass court season on Tuesday, upsetting the former champion in three.

Photo Source: Julian Finney/Getty

With a grass-court title under his belt already this season, Rafael Nadal came in as a heavy favorite against Alexandr Dolgopolov at Queen’s Club in London today. But the Ukranian, affectionately known as the dog, had too much bite on Tuesday.

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Dolgopolov came through an entertaining up-and-down tussle with the former Queen’s Club champion (2008), winning the final four games with a flourish to claim a 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4 upset.

Dolgopolov, who now owns two straight wins over Nadal, nearly came through in straight sets. He had a match point with a 6-5 lead in the second-set tiebreaker but Nadal was able to swing a wide serve for a winner then claim the next two points of the breaker to force a decider.

In the third set it was Nadal who drew first blood breaking for 2-1 lead when Dolgopolov missed a forehand passing shot just a tick wide.

Nadal looked to be off to the races but he stumbled in the eighth game and gave Dolgopolov two looks at break points with the Ukranian making good on the second to level at 4-all.

Nadal had his chances to recover in the next game, with two break points from 15-40. After missing the first the Spaniard had a golden opportunity as his patented inside-out forehand was all lined up and ready to be driven home for a winner, but Nadal netted it and Dolgopolov would later wiggle out of the game to put the pressure back on Nadal.

With the dog snarling and Nadal a bit tentative, fortune favored the bold in the next game. Dolgopolov tattooed a backhand return winner at 30-all to give himself a second match point and on the next point he drove a clean forehand winner to seal the upset.

Dolgopolov struck 48 winners against 25 for Nadal in the match, including 16 aces to five for Nadal. Dolgopolov won 46 of 59 first-serve points and did not face a break point until the final set.

Dolgopolov will move on to face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round.