Alexandr Dolgopolov, who reached the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters as a qualifier, will play the ATP 250 tournament in Winston-Salem this week. The world No. 39 was asked whether or not there is a risk to play the week before a Grand Slam tournament, but said that lower-ranked players can benefit from doing well at smaller events.
“Depends how seeded you are, if you're seeded at the major or not,” Dolgopolov said. “Also if you play a final or win, it's quite significant points. To get that at a major you need at least a fourth round or quarterfinal. That’s why a lot of players, they play, and if it goes good, you make the points that you really need to fight for. Like three, four match wins in U.S. Open.”
The Ukrainian reached a career-high ranking of No. 13 in 2012, but underwent knee surgery a year ago and had fallen to No. 80 this spring. In Cincinnati, the 26-year-old qualified and beat Bernard Tomic, Jerzy Janowicz, and Tomas Berdych to reach the semifinals, where he fell in three sets to Novak Djokovic.
“I just started to tell myself that I belong there, that I'm winning because my game is good,” Dolgopolov said. “The matches before, I gave away a lot of them because I thought it's like a good day, and maybe I wasn't prepared 100 percent to step on this level.
“Now I think the last two matches [at Cincinnati] showed that I can do it. I don’t need a very good day to compete with these guys. Hopefully I can build on that and get more consistent than I was these few years.”