Few outside the tennis nerd die-hards know about Evgeny Donskoy. But yesterday he played the match of his life and upset Roger Federer in the ATP tournament in Dubai, saving match points and winning a nail-biter 3-6 7-6 7-6. Federer did play a sketchy match and seemed to have a hard time motivating himself enough to find the intensity to win. On this level of tennis you need to give your everything, it doesn’t matter if you’re Roger Federer or ranked outside the top 100 like Donskoy.
A tough loss for the Federer fans who wanted to see the great champ make a stride towards the number one spot in the rankings (he needs quite a big stride however), but also a good reminder for all tennis players that you need to want to win badly in tennis to get the W. Federer didn’t want it enough. Winning a slam recently can do that to you.
Donskoy has 11 Challenger titles to his name and a best ranking of #67 so he’s no slouch. He is only 26 years old and if he can build some confidence from this win, he can be a dangerous top 50 player on the ATP tour for years to come.
Donskoy uses a Babolat Pure Drive Plus
, a popular extended length frame that packs a punch. He uses Babolat RPM Team
as his go-to string.
