Juan Martin Del Potro outshines Edouard Roger-Vasselin in round two of French Open: Tennis Special
Ninth seed, Juan Martin Del Potro, triumphed over the local challenger, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, in a four-set mouth-watering match at the French Open 2012 on Wednesday. He hit back to formulate a 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4 success against the world number
82 at this second of the four Grand Slam event held in Paris.
The 23-year-old displayed tremendous skills to oust Roger-Vasselin in their second duel against each other. After pocketing this match, Del Potro not only avenged his loss at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships three years ago but also levelled the FedEx
ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head series by 1-1 against the 28-year-old.
Roger-Vasselin made a poor start at this major red clay court tournament and suffered the first blow in the opening game to fall at 0-2. Despite making a fitting reply by reeling off the following four games successively, the French lost his edge in the
seventh game and eventually levelled the scores at 4-4. However, he stayed calm and not only prolonged the set to the tie-breaker but dominated in it to clinch the opener with a 7-6(5) score line.
The Argentinean number one on the other end got in action in the follow-up set. He endured the initial loss in the seventh game but quickly counterattacked in the very next game to level the scores at 4-4. Del Potro held remaining serves and dragged the
set to the tie-breaker. He cruised to a 5-1 lead in it before carving out the set with a 7-6(3) win.
Ranked ninth in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Del Potro kept momentum rolling into the third set and earned the critical break in the opening game to take the initial lead. He swiped in his entire serves after brushing off both breakpoints
he faced and clicked the set by winning six games to four in 53 minutes.
Del Potro’s maintained consistency in the following set and earned the desiderated break in the third game to go 3-1 up. He then kept remaining serves without facing any breakpoint and clicked the set with a 6-4 win in 51 minutes.
Summing up Del Potro’s performance in this battle, the Argentine clobbered a slightly lower first serve share of 60 per cent as compared to his rival’s 62 per cent but impressively availed 53 out of 78 points on it. He also hammered 52 winners and spilled
fewer unforced errors which made the difference.
Next up for the in-form Argentine is the 21st seed, Marin Cilic, who overpowered the former world number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero, in straight sets to set-up this meeting.
"We know one another well, very well," the Argentinean commented about his next match-up. "The matches we play are always very difficult. The way he plays tennis is similar to my way of playing tennis. He's really an attacker. He's really someone who serves
well. He's dangerous. I think that now 32 players are [left], and they're excellent players, and they could all play a major tournament, and Cilic has a lot of potential. He really is an excellent player. It's going to be tough."
The 23-year-old needs to stay focus throughout the match for a chance to meet the Czech number one, Tomas Berdych, in the fourth round.
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