Juan Martin del Potro moves into quarter-finals of Delray Beach International Championships
Argentine wildcard Juan Martin del Potro defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-1, 6-1 to book himself a place in the semi-finals of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Thursday night.
The contest was an all-Argentine show as del Potro simply outclassed his opponent in all segments of the game. His brilliant serve was no match for the Russian, who never broke serve in the whole match.
Del Potro delivered nearly 70 per cent of his first serves in. He amazingly took 22 of the 24 first serve points and broke serve eight times in the match.
The Russian appeared completely out of form. He did not show the class which he exhibited in defeating the fourth seed John Isner in the opening round. His footwork was stiff and his shots did not meet their marks.
Gabashvili was sluggish to start the contest and dropped his serve in his first two games of the opening set. Excellent power-hitting from del Potro earned him two break points, putting him in the early lead at 4-0.
The Argentine belted some elegant cross-court strokes and was very agile to convert winners by on-the-run hitting. Gabashvili only held serve in the fifth game before he was broken once again by his superior opponent. A third break point put the first set
under del Potro’s belt at 6-1.
The second set brought more worries for Gabashvili as his first serve ratio dropped drastically to 24 per cent. The Argentine exerted immense pressure on Gabashvili by winning 100 per cent of his first serve points.
An early serve break put del Potro in the lead at 3-1. The Argentine thumped plenty of assertive winners down the line, penetrating the bleak baseline defence of the Russian on many occasions.
Gabashvili put up slight resistance in the second set when he saved three break points on different occasions. His error count was on a high as plenty of his strokes went long and wide. The Russian lacked attacking moves in his game plan while del Potro
frequently came to the net.
Del Potro had an all-important serve break in the sixth game to get a huge lead of 5-1 in the set. The Argentine wrapped up the second set at 6-1 to move to the quarterfinals of the event.
The Argentine winner took 53 of the total 77 points in the match while his opponent merely won 24 of them. Del Potro reaches his third consecutive quarterfinal of the ongoing ATP World Tour 2011 season. He meets fifth seed South African Kevin Anderson in
the next round.
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