Former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro won his first match in a year yesterday, coming through a 200-minute test of his fitness with a 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (7/3) victory over Feliciano Lopez at the Sydney International.
The 22-year-old Argentine has played only two tournaments since having surgery last May on a wrist injury that hampered his Australian Open campaign last year, losing in the first round in both.
One of those defeats was to Lopez in Tokyo, but yesterday at the Sydney Olympic Center, wildcard Del Potro got his revenge after a monumental battle with the sixth seeded Spaniard.
“We played a beautiful match, very close,” said Del Potro, who will play German Florian Mayer, a 7-5, 6-0 winner over British wild-card James Ward, in the next round.
Del Potro showed great determination after trailing by a set and again in the second set tiebreak.
The third set was just as close and Del Potro was forced to save six break points before appropriately clinching victory with one of his savage flat forehands.
Earlier, defending champion and second seed Marcos Baghdatis pulled out of the tournament with a groin strain.
In the women’s draw, local Grand Slam hopeful Sam Stosur delighted the center court crowd by downing Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5, 6-4.
HEINEKEN OPEN
AP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber has overcome a slow start to beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Heineken Open tennis tournament.
Germany’s Kohlschreiber, the No. 8 seed and 2008 champion, arrived in Auckland after losing in three sets to Ivo Karlovic in the second round of the Qatar Open and looked tired in the opening set.
However, Kohlschreiber completely swung the match in the second set, taking an early break and serving strong to level the match. He then broke Berlocq twice for a 5-1 lead and survived a break point to take the final set in 32 minutes.
Earlier, Tommy Robredo of Spain also came from a set down to beat New Zealand wild-card Michael Venus 6-7 (7/6), 6-3, 6-0.
Robredo struggled in the first set against Venus’ powerful serve, but got on top with a service break in the opening game of the second set and grew stronger as the New Zealander steadily wilted.
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
AFP, HOBART, AUSTRALIA
French top seed Marion Bartoli dropped only one game in dumping former world No. 1 Dinara Safina out of the Hobart International yesterday.
Bartoli was in commanding form to put out the 2009 Australian Open runner-up, 6-0, 6-1 in 1 hour, 31 minutes in a night match.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but