Moscow: World No.124 Alex Bogomolov dumped Nikolay Davydenko from the Kremlin Cup in the first round, scoring the first upset of a seed in the $740,000 tournament. Fifth seed Davydenko is a three-time champion at his home event, winning in 2004, 2006 and 2007, but was unable to maintain a late comeback to go down 5-7, 4-6 on Tuesday.
"I lost because I made 50 errors, how could you not lose if you make so many mistakes. It was not Bogomolov who made me do them. I tried to attack, tried to play my game and that's why I made mistakes," the Russian No.2 said after the game. Bogomolov took the first set with a late break before racing to a 4-0 lead in the second before the Ukrainian-born Davydenko pulled the scores back to 4-4.
But Bogomolov fought back to claim a famous victory and a round-two match against World No.117 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia or Simone Bolelli of Italy. After the game Bogomolov, 29, recollected their encounter in the China Open earlier this month when Davydenko won in two sets, stating he adjusted his style of play.
"I started to play higher and send more balls to the left side because in Beijing we almost played table tennis, very fast. We started like that today, so I started to play higher to have more time to return to the centre," said Bogomolov. Earlier, seventh seed Carlos Berlocq had to dig deep to eliminate local wild card Andrey Kuznetsov in a three-set thriller 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In round two, the 29-year-old Berlocq will face either World No.65 Jerzy Janowicz of Poland or Germany's Benjamin Becker, ranked 76. Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands ousted German qualifier Michael Berrer 7-6(7), 6-3. Elsewhere, Russia's Konstantin Kravchuk defeated Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3 in a battle of two qualifiers.
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