Simone Bolelli battles past Ernests Gulbis into second round – PTT Thailand Open 2011
An upset result was witnessed in the opening round of the PTT Thailand Open, as the world number 47, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, crashed out of the tournament at the hands of the 138th ranked Italian competitor, Simone
Bolelli, on Tuesday afternoon.
The contest was staged on the indoor hard courts of the Impact arena, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the Italian qualifier stunning Gulbis to register a straight sets victory at 7-6(5), 7-6(5). The Latvian hung in the competition for
one hour and fifty six minutes before crumbling in the second set to let Bolelli through to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Association) World Tour 250 tournament.
The Italian played far better than his rankings suggest and registered his fifth World Tour-level victory in the current season. Bolelli faced some serious resistance from the unseeded Gulbis in the contest but it was only the
matter of time that he seized some critical points in the game to come out as the surprise winner.
Gulbis fired 19 cracking aces but also coughed four double faults at the most crucial moments of the contest to give advantage to his opponent. The Latvian also reeled 45 first serve points, with Bolelli clinching 40 out of his
52, but still couldn’t take down the Italian in the match. Both men registered two serve breaks apiece and the two sets were decided in the tie breaker rounds, with Bolelli getting the upper hand on both occasions.
An early trade of serve breaks was seen in the opener, followed by a regular game to take the scores to 6-6, imposing a tie breaker round. Gulbis missed a couple of vital opportunities in the decider to let the Italian fly away
with it at 7-6(5). The next set was a complete replication of the opening one, with a tie breaker round coming into play for a second time. Bolelli repeated the similar feat as he did in the first set and eventually concluded victory at 7-6(5) to move into
the second round of the tournament.
Bolelli needs one more win to get a berth in the quarter-final draw of the PTT Thailand Open and he will take on the unseeded Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov, in the second round to do so. Dimitrov won his opening round clash against
Croatia’s Ivan Dodig, stunning the fifth seed in straight sets 6-2, 7-5, to make it to the second round of the tournament.