Del Potro hangs tough
WORLD No 5 Juan Martin del Potro, the man tipped to challenge for grand slam titles this season, began his year with a scrappy win over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to advance to the quarterfinals of the Sydney International yesterday.
The Sydney warm-up to the Australian Open has proved a graveyard for the seeds this week, but the 25-year-old former US Open champion avoided an early flight to Melbourne by coming back to win 1-6 6-3 6-4. Rated a dark horse to win the title at Melbourne Park and add to his sole grand slam triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2009, the top-seeded Argentine will next take on Czech veteran Radek Stepanek for a place in the last four.
Defending champion Bernard Tomic, 21, advanced with a hard-fought 6-3 4-6 6-4 win over Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic to set up a quarterfinal with Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov.
The women’s draw, which has al- ready seen top seed Agnieszka Radwanska and former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki sent packing, lost third seed Sara Errani, who was upset 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 by Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals.
Former Wimbledon semifinalist Pironkova will play second seed and former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who wore down Lucie Safarova 7-6 6-2, for a place in the final. Meanwhile, the invitational Kooyong Classic kicked off in Melbourne yesterday, with a smattering of men’s top 10 players warming up at the eight-man exhibition.
World No 7 Tomas Berdych roared back from a 5-2 deficit in the first set to overhaul Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-5 6-2. France’s Richard Gasquet nearly suffered an embarrassing defeat by teenager Jordan Thompson, and had to save two matchpoints before fending off the 321st-ranked Australian 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-4). – Reuters