Juan Martin Del Potro thrashes Alejandro Falla in the opening round – Swiss Indoors Basel 2012
Argentinean star, Juan Martin Del Potro, further strengthened his position to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals by beating Colombia’s Alejandro Falla in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel.
The second seed needed just an hour and 25 minutes to clinch this one sided win over Falla.
Del Potro grabbed lead straightaway, breaking his Colombian opponent in the very first game and then holding his following serve to go up 2-0. The Argentinean’s success was short lived, as Falla hit back in the fourth one to equalise
the score at 2-2. However, Del Potro struck again in the ninth and capitalised on that advantage to win 6-4.
Start of the second set was exactly same as the opener, as Del Potro hit a blow to Falla in the first game and consolidated on it to grab a 2-0 lead. The Colombian player held his subsequent serve to reduce the trail to 1-2 but
he could not strike back in the fourth to equalise the score like the first set. Del Potro captured four games successively afterwards to clinch it 6-1.
The 6ft 6in tall player hit a total of three aces and clinched 27 of the 33 first serve points in the match. The 24-year-old could not fare well on the second ones, as he committed a couple of doubles faults and lost 12 of the
20 points in total.
Del Potro is seventh in the Race to London and has bright chances to confirm his place at the season ending championships.
The Argentinean said, "I haven't qualified yet, I need to win more matches. I hope to get there either this week or next. I was feeling tight in some parts of my body, but it was nothing dangerous. I can take care or it and be
ready for my next match.”
He added, "I couldn't serve huge like last week in Vienna. But I won in two sets and that's good for the confidence and for saving energy for the next match. I still made a good start to this event."
Del Potro will play American comeback star, Brian Baker, in the second round.
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