Juan Martin Del Potro defeats Fernando Verdasco; clinches the Estoril Open title
Thirty second ranked Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro surprised everyone by clinching the Estoril Open championship title after he outclassed the world number 17 Fernando Verdasco of Spain at the Estadio Nacional in Oeiras, Portugal
on Sunday. The second seeded Spaniard hung in for just 76 minutes before suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Del Potro in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, to lose the final of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament.
The Argentine suffered a straight sets defeat at the hands of Verdasco earlier this season at San Jose but avenged it at Estoril by capturing the ATP title. Del Potro now leads the all-time head-to-head series against the Spanish
to 2-1 after winning his ninth career title. It was the first clay-court tournament for the Argentine in 23 months and proved absolutely devastating for his opponent.
“It was my best match of the week,” admitted Del Potro in his post match reviews, “Finals are difficult to play, you never know if you will play your best tennis or not. Today, I won and I played really nice tennis. Everything
was perfect. To beat Fernando you have to play good tennis. I served really well and was very confident on my forehand and backhand too. I took all my opportunities, especially on my break points. Hopefully I will be at the same level in my next match.”
Del Potro literally had no trouble in dispensing out his opponent in the game and stung five serve breaks en route to victory. Verdasco had three chances to crack a break point and he converted just one in the entire matchup to
remain on the losing end. A total of 94 points were played in the game, with Verdasco clinching 35 and the Argentine leading with the rest of 59 points to claim the championship.
Del Potro drew the first blood in the opening game of the contest, only to be broken in the next game. It was the only hiccup the Argentine had in the competition and cruised through the rest of the game with ease. He cracked two
more serve breaks to reel off the opening set at 6-2 and got the upper hand in the contest.
The Argentine domination continued in the next set as well, with Verdasco slumping further in the game. The Spaniard held serve in just two of his games and suffered serve breaks twice from Del Potro before he finally surrendered
at 2-6 to end his championship run.
Del Potro has now won 23 of his past 26 encounters and has amazingly improved his world rankings from number 484 to his current 32nd spot.
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