Juan Martin Del Potro downs Adrian Mannarino in the opening round – Australian Open 2012
Recovering from a sloppy start, world number 11, Juan Martin Del Potro overcame the 91st ranked Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino, in the opening round battle of the Australian Open campaign on Monday. The exciting duel took
almost three hours to conclude, with the 11th seed Argentine settling the final scores in his favour at 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, to have an emphatic initiation to the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.
23-year-old Mannarino was off to a ballistic start in the opening set and took Del Potro by surprise. His pin-point power hitting earned him 15 out of 17 first serve points in the opener and he nailed two out of three break points
to take down the former US Open champion early in the game. He wrapped up the first set at 6-2, taking barely 29 minutes of play and threatening an upset to the 11th seed.
Del Potro made a thumping comeback in the following set, breaking his opponent twice in a row to race away to 6-1 in 37 minutes. Once getting his eye in the game, the world number 11 carried on his winning traits in the third set
as well but Mannarino was also labouring to halt his momentum. A close contest was witnessed for almost an hour and the momentum kept swinging between the two sides. A timely break point conversion from Del Potro in the 11th game closed out the
set in his favour at 7-5, getting into a 2-1 lead in the competition.
More of intense tennis was witnessed in the fourth set and Del Potro continued with his aggressive game play to keep winning points on regularity. He dropped his serve once in the set but retaliated with a two crushing serve breaks
to close out the enthralling contest at 6-4.
Del Potro will next take on the unseeded Slovenian, Blaz Kavcic, in the second round of the Australian Open. Kavcic registered a comprehensive straight sets victory over the British qualifier, James Ward, in the opening round of
the tournament, settling the final scores at 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, to move into the second round of the Grand Slam event.
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