BNP Paribas Open 2011: Juan Martín Del Potro defeats Radek Stepanek - Review
Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro defeated Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic easily to get into the second round of main draw at the BNP Paribas Open 2011.The tournament is being played at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens in Indian
Wells, California.
Potro, who is 22 years old, was once ranked as high as 4th in the world though now he ranks 90th in the world. He encountered a wrist injury in 2010 which forced him to withdraw from most of the tournaments
during the year. His opponent, Stepanek, has been playing tennis professionally for fifteen years now and is ranked 63th in the world at the age of 32.
This was the pair’s only second meeting on tour with their first having been two years ago at the ATP world Tour Masters Event 1000 France Tournament. Stepanek had then defeated Potro in just 28 minutes to take a 1-0 lead in the
official head to head score. Two years later, Del Potro was more than happy to return the favour and settle his score with the Czech.
The first set saw the lower ranked Potro serve much better than his opponent as he hit 3 aces whereas his opponent managed to hit only 1. Both players registered equal number of double faults. Surprisingly, the 32-year-old made
it possible to land 53 per cent of his first serves. Potro, on the other hand, only delivered 49 per cent of his serves.
However, the situation was not as similar as far as transfiguring first serves into points was concerned. Potro won 79 per cent of the points, as opposed to his opponent's much lower 56 per cent. The Argentine also managed to
save 83 percent break points saving 5 of 6 while his opponent only managed 2 of 4. Dominating the court, the Argentine was able to clinch a 6-4 win for himself in the first set.
The second set was an all-Del Potro show. Completely dominating his opponent, the Argentine broke serve thrice denying his opponent a single win. Although Stepanek landed 68 per cent of his first serves accurately as opposed to
Potro only managing 44 the deciding factor was the percentage of points won on service. Potro succeeded in registering a respectable 75 percent win while Stepanek was left lingering at a meager 29 percent.
Ultimately the Argentine was able to clinch a bagel win for himself in the set, registering a straight sets 6-4, 6-0 win. He now moves on ahead to play the fourteenth seeded Croat, Ivan Ljubicic. A seeded player at the event, Ljubicic
received a bye into the second round.
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