Juan Martin Del Potro rallies past Ryan Harrison into the last 32 – US Open 2012
Former champion, Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro ended the US Open campaign of rising American star, Ryan Harrison, by beating him in four sets 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the second round at the Flushing Meadows in New York on Friday.
Del Potro needed two hours and 34 minutes to complete this victory over Harrison.
The Argentinean is one of the five former US Open champions in the draw, with the other ones being Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick. The Tandil, Argentina resident captured the title here in 2009,
after beating Rafael Nadal and Federer in the semi-finals and final respectively.
Del Potro attacked Harrison’s serve from the beginning of the contest, breaking him in the opening game and consolidating on it to move ahead 2-0. The Argentinean star hit another blow to the American contender in the seventh and
made the most of the double strike to win 6-2.
Start of second set was the same, as Del Potro struck in the very first game and won his subsequent serve to attain a 2-0 lead. Serving to stay in contention in the ninth one, Harrison managed to win only one point and went down
3-6.
Pattern of third set was exactly similar to the first but this time it was in Harrison’s favour. The American clinched breakthroughs in the first and eighth game to close it 6-2.
Harrison and Del Potro managed to start the fourth set by holding their serve in the first three games and taking the score to 2-1 in favour of the latter. Though, the Argentinean struck twice later on to capture it 6-2.
During the post match press conference, Del Potro said, "My first round and today was a big challenge for me to see how my wrist is going and how my level is. Always when you win matches everything is better. I'm happy to go through
to the third round. I will have another tough match in the third round against Mayer. The tournament is getting worse every day and you have to be 100 per cent.”
Harrison, who has not won a single match against a top-10 player in his career so far, stated, "I've got to win one match at this level before I can consistently win at this level. It's a process and it's going to take, unfortunately,
a little more time than I want it to because these guys are all really good."
Del Potro will take on his compatriot, Leonardo Mayer, in the third round.
Tags: