Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain beat his compatriot Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinal of Adelaide International 2 on Thursday. The match lasted for less than one and a half hours as the 34-year-old Bautista Agut was decidedly the superior player on the day.
Bautista Agut will take on Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia in the second semifinal on Friday. Now, let’s take a look at two keys to the match:
Two keys to Roberto Bautista Agut’s win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Adelaide International 2
#1. Davidovich Fokina kept committing errors off his forehand:
Right from the beginning of the match, the two players engaged in prolonged exchanges. However, there respective approaches towards those rallies remained different.
While, Davidovich Fokina tried to blast his opponent off the court, Bautista Agut stayed calm and did not try to force the issue. However, that does not mean that he did not play his strokes with enough power on them.
Davidovich Fokina kept committing unforced errors off his forehand throughout the match by repeatedly hitting his shots either wide of the court or into the net.
Bautista Agut broke him in the third game of the first set and then again in the ninth game to win the set quite easily.
#2. Davidovich Fokina continued to be error-prone in the second set, as Bautista Agut remained clinical:
Davidovich Fokina continued his tendency to over-press with his forehand in the second set as well, thereby making Bautista Agut’s job easier. The 23-year-old Spaniard also committed a few double faults during key moments, including on a break point in the sixth game, to compound his own misery. He was broken twice in the second set as well.
Bautista Agut, meanwhile, remained clinical and relatively error-free. He had a fantastic first-serve ratio of 95% and won 83% of the points on his first delivery against a meager 55% managed by his opponent.
Davidovich Fokina’s error-prone game allowed his opponent to have 11 break point opportunities in the match, of which four were converted. He ended the match with 16 unforced errors against Bautista Agut’s eight.
Main Photo from Getty.
