Alexander Donski was knocked out in the doubles quarterfinals of the “Challenger 125“ tournament in Saint-Tropez, France. The Bulgarian Davis Cup national and Polish Filip Piechonka lost to Fernando Romboli of Brazil and Daniel Cukierman of Israel 6:7(6), 7:6(2), 7:10.
The match on hard court lasted just over two hours. The two regular sets were decided by a tiebreak, and at 1:1 the score led to a long tiebreak up to 10 points.
Donski and Piechonka reached 7:8
The Bulgarian-Polish tandem fell behind by 2:7, but won four consecutive points and reduced the gap to 6:7. After another mini-break, Donski and Piechonka again approached their rivals at 7:8.
However, Romboli and Cukierman had the opportunity to serve twice in a row. They won both their serves and closed the match with 10:7 in the decisive tiebreak.
25 points and a record ranking
Despite the defeat, the 28-year-old Donski guaranteed himself 25 points for the ATP rankings in duets. This week he occupies a career-high 81st place.
The Bulgarian tennis player will also receive 920 euros from the tournament's prize fund, which is worth 203,900 euros.
Sources: Sportal