Davidovich Fokina Battles Into Maiden Grand Slam QF
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final on Sunday as he battled past Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 56 minutes at Roland Garros.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who overcame Casper Ruud in a mammoth five-set battle in the third round, hit 42 winners and broke Delbonis seven times on Court Suzanne-Lenglen to set up a clash with either sixth seed Alexander Zverev or Kei Nishikori.
Davidovich Fokina improved to 19-10 on the season with the victory over 30-year-old Delbonis. He previously reached the fourth round at the US Open in September (l. Zverev) and advanced to the semi-finals on clay at the Millennium Estoril Open (l. Ramos-Vinolas) in May to reach a career-high No. 45 in the FedEX ATP Rankings.
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In a lively start where both players broke serve, Davidovich Fokina moved ahead, reeling off four straight games to lead 5-3 as errors started to fly from the Argentine’s racquet. The Spaniard, who had spent ten hours and 14 minutes on court ahead of this fourth round match, won 46 per cent of points on Delbonis’ first serve, dominating from the baseline as he showed no signs of fatigue to win the opener.
The Spaniard then raced into a 5-1 lead in the second as he won 93 per cent of points (14/15) on his first serve. Although the youngster displayed some nerves, with Delbonis closing back to 5-4, the Argentine could not convert two break opportunities to level at 5-5. Davidovich Fokina capitalised on his third set point with a forehand winner to move further clear.
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Lefthander Delbonis hit his heavy forehand into the Spaniard’s backhand with more success throughout the third set though, and battled back from a break down to gain a foothold in the contest. However, Davidovich Fokina made 82 per cent of his first serves in the fourth and used the drop shot to great effect against his tiring opponent, making the crucial breakthrough at 3-3. He then fended off four break points to serve out the contest to extend his stay in France.
Delbonis lost just eight games in his third-round encounter with Fabio Fognini to move to 19 clay-court wins for the season. However, the 30-year-old, who reached the quarter-finals at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia as a qualifier (l. Opelka), struggled to deal with the Spaniard’s power on Sunday.