Dolgopolov Upsets and Haas Upset in Madrid

The action in Madrid, Spain heats up today as Day 3 and the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open rolls on. While many of the sport’s big names will take to the court later today, a number of matches have concluded so far.

In the early matches of the day, BMW Open by FWU AG runner up Fabio Fognini saw his tournament come to an end early as he was upset by Alexandr Dolgopolov who smashed 24 winners and won 18 of 20 net approaches, pulling out the two-plus-hour victory, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. In another shocking result, tournament qualifier Igor Sijsling took down Tommy Haas 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, to pick up his first ever win against the German. Haas is currently ranked 17 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, but could see that drop as he was bounced from the BWM Open in Germany last week and was handed a first-round exit on Tuesday.

Radek Stepanek also saw his tournament come to an end Tuesday as he faced off with the American Kevin Anderson. After losing the first set 3-6 to the Monte Carlo native Stepanek, Anderson fought back win the second and third sets to notch his 16th match victory of the season. Anderson now advances to take on Tomas Berdych in what will be the 11th meeting between the two over the last 28 months, resulting in a lot of familiarity.

“It’s going to be a tough match, but at least I know what to expect,” said Anderson. “The conditions help the serve; it’s getting up a lot so that’s definitely in my favor. Tomas is a tall guy so I am sure he will like the conditions as well.”

Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis also moved on Tuesday, as he battled with Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in a three-set match. Gulbis powered 18 aces and pulled away in the third set to secure the 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-2 victory. In the match of the day, Spain’s Nicolas Almagro dueled with qualifier Andrey Golubev for more than two and a half hours. Almagro outlasted the Kazakhstan native for a 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4 win setting up a match with the 2008 winner of this tournament, Andy Murray.