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Del Potro sends reigning champion tumbling in Tokyo

Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro yesterday denied David Ferrer a chance to defend his Japan Open title, beating the top seed in straight sets in the quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old Del Potro — ranked 12th in the world after a blistering summer that saw him win four titles — powered his way into the semi-finals with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over the Spanish world No. 5.

In today’s semi-finals, Del Potro will play last year’s runner-up, Richard Gasquet of France, who easily dismissed 2003 champion Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 6-3, 6-2.

Second seed Andy Roddick, fresh off a victory at the China Open last weekend, will face ninth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the other semi-final.

Roddick, a former US Open champion, breezed past Viktor Troicki of Serbia, 6-3, 6-4, while Berdych pulled off a 6-0, 6-4 upset win over third seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.

“When you play against a good player ranked number five, if you win easily, it’s not normal. I prepared for everything, for every shot,” said Del Potro, who captured his maiden title at Stuttgart in July.

“He runs till the final ball, but I did a good first set. But in the second he started to play better and it was more difficult, but finally I broke him and I went on to win the match,” he said.

Del Potro never faced a single break point in the first set, but got himself in trouble in the third game of the second set. He double-faulted twice to go down 15-40, but rebounded with two strong first serves to stave off the break.

After breaking Ferrer to go ahead 5-3, he failed to serve out for the match by netting a forehand, but finally finished the match in the 12th game with a forehand winner down the line.

“I tried hard, but Martin, he’s very confident. It was not a surprise. He’s playing very well these two months. He’s been winning a lot of matches, and today he played very good,” Ferrer said.

In the women’s draw, top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark easily beat Thai ace Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semi-final against Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia, the winner over Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 7-5.

Fifth seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia edged past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/1), while eighth seed Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada defeated Australia’s Samantha Stosur 7-5, 6-3 to set up the other semi-final.
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