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Golubev sent crashing out of Pilot Pen by qualifier

James Blake tumbled out in the second round © Getty Images

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Andrey Golubev crashed out of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament at the hands of qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili.

Golubev appeared sluggish from the outset and was left to rue not converting any of his eight break points in the first set as Gabashvili stole a march on the fifth seed.

A single break in the second set was enough to draw Golubev level, and as his first serve began to fire, there looked only one outcome.

But Gabashvili had failed to read the script and refused to roll over. Both players broke each other once in the decider but the match had to be settled in a tie-break - with Gabashvili edging it to prevail 6-3 3-6 7-6(7).

Top seed Marcos Baghdatis narrowly avoided another upset by snapping into action after the first set in a 1-6 6-3 6-2 win over Juan Ignacio Chela.

Baghdatis won just seven points on his serve in that first set, compared to 19 and 16 in the next two.

Denis Istomin also came close to being a high-profile casualty after he was taken to three sets by Lukas Lacko.

Istomin took the first set with ease before his opponent raised his game to claim the second. Lacko, who has lost more matches this year than he has won, was chancing his arm and firing off winners at will.

But unfortunately for the Slovakian he could not maintain his high level and Istomin, 23, earned a single break to seal a 6-2 2-6 6-3 victory.

Thiemo De Bakker pulled off a sensational victory over eighth seed Germany's Florian Mayer to advance into the fourth round.

Mayer claimed the first set on a tie-break but Bakker, the 12th seed, found his range in the second, winning an incredible 80 per cent of points on his own first and second serve. The deciding set was a cagey affair but Bakker earned the crucial break to march on in New Haven.

Lucky loser Radek Stepanek is riding his good fortune all the way into the quarter-finals after getting the better of Victor Hanescu 7-6 6-7 6-4 in a serve-dominated affair.

Wildcard James Blake failed to make the third round after he was beaten in straight sets by Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Resuming their rain-delayed second-round clash, Dolgopolov, the seventh seed, was far more consistent than his American opponent and he thoroughly deserved his 6-4 6-2 win.

Dolgopolov played his third round match later in the day and ran out of puff as Viktor Troicki finally made a third-set breakthrough in a 6-7 7-6 6-2 victory. The first two sets stayed on serve but Dolgopolov's disrupted match preparation may have contributed to his late fade.

Evgeny Korolev beat Illya Marchenko 7-6 6-4 in the other match to set up a quarter-final with de Bakker.

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