Juan Martin Del Potro wins Delray Beach Tennis Championships by dispatching Serbian Janko Tipsarevic
Argentine debutant Juan Martin Del Potro made a strong come back after his wrist injury, winning the final of the Delray Beach International Championships against sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic on Sunday night. Del Potro captured his first title since 2009
by outplaying the Serb contestant in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4 taking one hour and fifty four minutes.
22-year-old Del Potro had missed most of the last season because of a serious wrist injury; he kissed his wrist after winning the contest.
“Three months ago I was thinking I’ll be trying to play tournaments,” reflected Del Potro in his post match reviews, “Now I won a tournament. It’s great to win a tournament after a year.”
Crowd at the Delray Beach witnessed an enthralling contest. Stakes were high for the in-form Tipsarevic but the Argentine proved himself a far better player than him. Momentum kept oscillating in the contest but Del Potro was dominant at most times.
The Serbian failed to deliver his serve up to the mark and had a first serve percentage of merely 49. Tipsarevic’s inability to cash in his chances wore him out in the game. He got 11 serve break opportunities but only converted one out of them.
“The key was the break points and my first serve percentage was horrible,” Tipsarevic noted after the match. His error count was quite reasonable but his baseline defence was bleak, allowing his rival to crack winners down the line regularly.
Tipsarevic had a great start to the final, breaking the opponent’s serve early in the opener. The Serb raced to a 3-1 lead as his competitor coughed a backhand error. It looked as if the sluggish Argentine would stand no chance against the sixth seed. Del
Potro’s forehand strokes were flat and failed to hit their marks.
A sloppy seventh game by Tipsarevic gave Del Potro a chance to break back in the first set and cut the deficit to 3-4. Tipsarevic’s errant ground strokes let the Argentine break his serve once more at 5-4. An exciting tenth game was witnessed as Del Potro
denied five break points to the Serb. The debutant wrapped up the opening set at 6-4 when Tipsarevic thumped a forehand into the net.
Del Potro’s good attacking tennis never allowed Tipsarevic to regroup in the following set. It was an error-ridden second set for the sixth seed. An early double-fault left the Serb trailing at 2-3 in the set. The Argentine exerted pressure over his opponent
with elegant cross-court strokes and held his serve throughout the set to reach triple championship point at 5-4. Del Potro thrust his arms in air with sheer joy as Tipsarevic sent a final forehand wide, ensuring the first tile win for the year for the 22-year-old
Argentine.
The triumph will elevate the Argentine into the top 100 players in men’s rankings this week.
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