You say Teimuraz, I say Teymuraz. Like Oleksandr became Aleksander Dologopolov (who lost in straights to Ferrer), Gabashvili has chanced the spelling of his first name now preferring to use the “y” instead of the “i”. And with maturity, he’s now tamed some of his hard-hitting but erratic tennis.
And for two plus sets, Gabashvili fought off break points, hit hard shots, and had Nadal unable to break serve. The only good news for Nadal was Gabashvili’s inability to play a solid tiebreak. He played two indifferent tiebreaks in sets 1 and 2. Then, Gabashvili finally got broken, and then again, and lost the third set, 6-3.
Gabashvili is one of those big hitters that, when things go right, he’s hard to beat, but more often than not, he misses a lot. In 2009, Gabashvili lost easily to Nadal in Miami, but he played his shots better this time.
(Nadal, like Federer, wore a black outfit, but he also had some neon green to go along with it–alas, news sites are slow to get recent pics posted so I am posting the pink–just imagine the same shirt in black and the shoulder parts in pink are light gray).
Fernando Verdasco was struggling against Fabio Fognini. He had already lost to him last time they met in a Slam, which was, well, Wimbledon, first round. I suppose the two must have wondered what the odds were they’d meet again in the first round of the US Open. This time, Verdasco managed to eke out the win in five sets: 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
David Nalbandian was trying to escape the fate of Baghdatis, one of the guys that had a great summer, but got eliminated in five sets by a veteran (Arnaud Clement). Nalbandian was playing unheralded Dutch player Rik de Voest and was pushed to five sets and was down a break before getting the break back and breaking again: 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4.
Julien Benneteau “upset” Radek Stepanek, but given the lack of match play of Stepanek, it’s perhaps no surprise Benneteau won in four sets.
More matches tomorrow!
