MELBOURNE (AFP) – Little-known Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov said he would take great confidence away from the Australian Open Wednesday after his dream run was halted by Andy Murray.
The 22-year-old, who grew up on tour when his father coached Ukrainian great Andrei Medvedev, claimed the scalps of former runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and fourth seed Robin Soderling before running into the “smart” Murray.
The ponytailed Dolgopolov will also see his ranking shoot up from 46 to 34 after putting together four wins on his Melbourne debut — and just his fourth major — and costing Murray his first set of the year.
“I’m really happy that I achieved some goals,” Dolgopolov said. “I had a goal to make the second week. I’m happy I could do it, even though it was against pretty strong guys.
“I’m really happy that the year started this way. Really happy that I am playing this way. I’m really looking forward towards the next tournaments. I’m confident now and I think I can do good.”
But despite showing enormous fight again on Wednesday, Dolgopolov said he found the British world number five a step too far on Rod Laver Arena after going down 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
“He’s one of the smartest players, he tries to break your game,” Dolgopolov said. “He plays really smart tactically. He doesn’t give away a lot. You need to make him make the mistakes.”
Dolgoplov was coached by his father Oleksandar, a former professional player, until his late teens, but he is now mentored by Australia’s Jack Reader.
There was a comical moment at the start of the fourth set when the Ukrainian had quickly gone 3-0 down and he looked to his box for inspiration from Reader, only to see nobody there.
“Yeah, he told me he went to the toilet,” Dolgopolov laughed. “They were giving him a hard time getting back because they were saying: ‘You don’t have a box pass’.
“He’s like: ‘Look, it says Dolgopolov’s coach’. He wasn’t there for a few games.
“You just look up to see someone cheer for you and it makes you feel better, but he wasn’t there, he went somewhere for his business. I mean, it’s not like a tragedy or anything.”










