Del Potro off to winning start
MIAMI: Former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro got his season off to another successful start at the ATP Delray Beach Open, winning in straight sets.
Del Potro wasn’t at his best, especially on his backhand. But he used his powerful serve and blasted enough forehand winners to beat the South African 6-4, 6-4.
Del Potro, who also started his ATP Tour season last year at the Delray Beach event, hammered five aces and won 84 percent of his first serve points in the first round battle between two former tournament winners.
In another marquee match-up on Tuesday, Canadian top seed Milos Raonic blasted 10 aces in downing US qualifier Tim Smyczek 6-1, 6-4 to reach the second round.
Del Potro reached the semi-finals of this event last year before going on to win 32 matches and being named the Tour’s comeback player of the year for the second time.
The 28-year-old Argentinian, who won the 2009 US Open title, has endured three left wrist and one right wrist surgeries in his career.
Australian sixth seed Bernard Tomic became the first seed ousted at the hardcourt event, with Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis rallying to deliver a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat to the world No.31.
And 37-year-old second seed Ivo Karlovic followed shortly thereafter, falling 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3) to 69th-ranked American Donald Young despite 19 aces from the world number 20 Croatian.
Raonic booked a second-round matchup with 49th-ranked Croatian Borna Coric, who eliminated Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo 6-2, 6-3.
In Rio de Janeiro, Kei Nishikori smashed his racket into the red clay after losing the first set on Tuesday, an unusual burst of anger from the usually calm Japanese player. Destroying the racket didn’t help. He lost the second set, too, as Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci upset the top seed in the first round of the Rio Open 6-4, 6-3.
His loss makes second seed Dominic Thiem the favourite for the title. Thiem had a 6-4, 7-5 win over Janko Tipsarevic and will face another Serbian in the second round against Dusan Lajovic.
In other first-round matches, fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta beat Brazil’s Joao Souza 6-3, 6-2. No.5 Albert Ramos-Vinolas defeated Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-0.
In Dubai, top seed Angelique Kerber survived as three of the top five seeds were bundled out of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday.
The world No.2, who won two Grand Slams in 2016, dispatched Mona Bartel 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match.
US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova, last week’s Doha winner and the second seed, was dumped out in straight sets by France’s Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4.
Third seed Dominika Cibulkova fell victim to Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, having also lost to the Russian in the third round of the Australian Open.
Roland Garros champion and fifth seed Garbine Muguruza lasted less than 30 minutes on court, retiring at 1-4 in the first set with a foot injury in her second round match against Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.