Australian Open 2011: Error prone Juan Martin del Potro survives early scare
Returning to tennis after being sidelined for more than six months due to a wrist injury, Juan Martin del Potro received a protected ranking entry into the Australian Open 2011 main draw.
The Argentine kicked off 2011 playing at the Medibank International in Sydney recently though the start could have been better. A wildcard entrant into the event, del Potro was ousted only in the second round by Florian Mayer.
Competing for the fifth straight year at the event, del Potro’s career best at the Australian Open came in 2009 when he made it to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual finalist Roger Federer. His 2010 run at the event was ended in the fourth round
by Marin Cilic.
Pitted against Dudi Sela in his opening bid, the error-prone Argentine committed three double faults and registered almost two times more unforced errors than Sela before finally winning the match in straight sets.
Opening serve in the first set, Sela led the score while del Potro followed closely at the heels forcing a tiebreaker. In a set that lasted 79 minutes, the pair kept the tiebreaker score tied for 26 points. Finally breaking Sela’s serve on the 27th
point, del Potro won the tiebreaker 15-13 with a well placed ace. Thereafter, del Potro broke Sela’s serve twice to register a score of 6-4, 6-4 for the next two sets.
After the match, del Potro said, “I feel good, [it] is nice for me be here with these players and of course playing a Grand Slam. Today I played good tennis again. But I'm really enjoying this week. I met with all the players, especially the Top 10 players. They
supported me when I was very bad. So now I [am] face to face with them I [can] say thank you.”
Serving nineteen aces and losing 41 of 115 points on service, del Potro enjoyed a straight sets victory to move ahead. He will now play Marcos Baghdatis in the next round.
Seeded 15th in the event, Baghdatis opened his event drawn against Grega Zemlja. Winning the toss, Zemlja opted to serve first and sped into a lead to win the first set 6-3. However, bouncing back in the second Baghdatis won two successive sets
7-5, 6-1. Coming into the fourth set, Baghdatis was once again dominated by Zemlja with the latter winning 6-4. Entering the deciding fifth set, Baghdatis found his lost form and secured his victory with a 6-2 win.
Joining these two in the second round is the American giant, John Isner.
Coming into the event, the hard-hitting American met Florent Serra in his opening clash. Striking 26 aces and losing only 34 of 110 points on service, Isner prevailed 6-3, 7-6 and 6-3. He will now face Radek Stepanek in the second round.
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