Juan Martin del Potro won his first title in his first final since winning the 2009 US Open, beating Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-4 at the Delray Beach championships on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Del Potro, on the comeback trail after missing most of last season with a right-wrist injury, looked fatigued throughout the finals at Delray Beach, but he willed himself to victory over the erratic Tipsarevic, then thrust his arms in the air and kept kissing his wrist — almost in thanks for it healing.
“Three months ago, I was thinking I’ll be trying to play tournaments,” Del Potro said. “Now I won a tournament. It’s great to win a tournament after a year.”
Del Potro should make a big move from No. 166 when the next ATP Tour rankings are released, but he knows there is still a long way to go before he contends with the top players again.
The Argentine, who has eight career wins, reached the semi-finals in San Jose and Memphis in advance of playing Delray Beach. He plans to stay in South Florida and skip the Davis Cup for Argentina this coming weekend, then play at Indian Wells or in Miami later this month.
The 52nd-ranked Tipsarevic was trying to win his first title in three career finals, but he couldn’t hold on to his early advantage in the match. The Serbian struggled on his serve, succeeding with only 49 percent of his first serves throughout the match and he was only able to capitalize on one of 11 break points on Del Potro’s serve.
“The key was the break points and my first serve percentage was horrible,” Tipsarevic said. “All the factors were going my way to win, but I really didn’t use my chances. One of 11 break points — it’s completely unacceptable against a guy like this in a final.”
At the beginning of the match, Tipsarevic raced to a 4-1 lead. Del Potro was looking flat and could not find any range with his trademark forehand, but then Tipsarevic played a poor seventh service game to hand Del Potro back the service break, which turned the match to his favor.
In the second set, Del Potro scored the one necessary service break in the fifth game.
Tipsarevic was heading off to join his Serbian Davis Cup teammates in Novi Sad, Serbia, where they will begin defense of their Davis Cup title against India.
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