Juan Martin del Potro made a strong start to his French Open preparations with a 6-1, 6-0 hammering of Portugal’s Rui Machado to reach the quarter-finals of the Estoril Open on Thursday.
Del Potro, the top seed and defending champion, was playing an ATP match on a clay court for the first time this season after winning two clay-court Davis Cup rubbers at home last month when Argentina defeated Croatia.
Despite the scoreline, the 23-year-old admitted that Machado had tested him as he looks to build up his form.
Photo: Reuters
“I played well for only my first match after Davis Cup. The score might not have looked it, but he’s dangerous on clay,” said Del Potro, who won his last title in Marseille, France, in February, prior to a semi-final in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, against Roger Federer. “But I played much better than him and took all of my break points.”
A year ago, Del Potro arrived at the Estadio Nacionale ranked 46th and unsure of his game after missing much of the previous year following wrist surgery.
However, the 2009 US Open champion dug deep to claim his first title in the country with a victory over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Photo: AFP
Now ranked a more respectable 12th, the Argentine said: “I’m pleased with my performance. This was good for a first match of this part of the season.”
Victory over Machado improved Del Potro’s record this year to 24-6 ahead of his semi-final against two-time champion Albert Montanes.
Montanes, seeded seventh, advanced to the last eight with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Bobby Reynolds of the US.
Fourth seed Albert Ramos of Spain beat German Bjorn Phau 7-5, 6-0 to reach the quarters, where he is set to face the last Portuguese in contention, Joao Sousa.
The local player won 3-6, 6-3, 4-2 when Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan quit after a half-hour evening rain interruption, citing a bad back as his reason for not returning to the court.
In the women’s draw, Italian top seed Roberta Vinci reached the semi-finals by defeating Russian seventh seed Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
“I’m playing very well again this season,” said 29-year-old Vinci, who won three clay-court trophies last year. “It is some of my best tennis. I’m more consistent now than when I was young.”
Estonian Kaia Kanepi, the sixth seed, upset Czech fourth seed Petra Cetkovska 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro defeated Spanish compatriot Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-3, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Karin Knapp, after the unseeded Italian defeated Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 6-4.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later