Juan Martin Del Potro vs Ernests Gulbis – Quarterfinal Preview: Farmers Classic 2011
Second seeded Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro faces Ernest Gulbis, from Latvia, in their quarter final match of the Farmers Classic on Friday. The match, which will without doubt be a thrilling challenge, is scheduled to begin
around 7.30PM (Los Angeles’ time) at the Straus Stadium on campus at the University College Los Angeles (UCLA).
Del Potro had received a bye in the first round of the tournament and had gone on to stage a pitched battle against veteran American James Blake in the second round. Blake desperately looking to make a comeback failed to make a
dent in the second seed’s progress and Del Potro made headway to the quarter finals 6-4, 7-6(3). Gulbis’ Los Angeles campaign has had a defiant start, where in his opening round match he took down fifth seed Xavier Malisse in three sets and proceeded to demolish
the American college standout qualifier Daniel Kosakowski.
Former world number fourDel Potro had a delightful start to the year. He clocked in impressive performances at San Jose and Memphis in February when he reached the semi-finals twice. His singles career titles jumped up to an impressive
9, when he won the titles at Delray Beach and Estoril earlier this year. With an outstanding season’s win-loss mark of 35-9, Del Potro gave Rafael Nadal a pretty tough time before losing in their fourth round match at Wimbledon this year. Del Potro previously
held the Farmers Classic title in 2008, when he defeated the likes of Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick in his semi-final and final match respectively. This tournament is the player’s first major ATP Tour since Wimbledon 2011.
Latvian World No. 84 Gulbis came into the tournament with an unimpressive season’s win-loss standing of 9-14 and holds 1 ATP title – the hard court Delray Beach 2010. Initially his season’s commencement looked promising since he
rounded up his performances at Sydney and Doha by reaching the semi-finals and quarterfinals respectively, however things have been on a downward slide since then. In June, Gulbis was ousted from the Wimbledon’s very first round by Dmitry Tursunov and later
in July he lost to American senior James Blake, again in the tournament’s first round.
Not surprisingly the two players’ head-to-head rankings stand at 2-0, wholly in Del Potro’s account. The two have played against each other twice in 2009, at Memphis and Auckland. Del Potro had effortlessly won the match in Memphis
6-3, 6-4 while Gulbis proved more competitive in Auckland, where Del Potro won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Del Potro is guaranteed a win at the quarterfinals Friday in three sets. It should be noted that Gulbis’ previous two losses against Del Potro had also been on hard courts similar to the ones at Los Angeles.
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