Home arrow News arrow Sport arrow del Potro Defeats Melzer; Continues Solid Play On Hard Courts
del Potro Defeats Melzer; Continues Solid Play On Hard Courts PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 1
PoorBest 
Written by Ed McGrogan   
Friday, 31 August 2007
Hailing from a country known for producing world-class clay court players, Juan Martin del Porto is going against traditional custom. Rather then playing his best tennis on the dirt, he has instead excelled on hard courts, a much faster surface and one that traditionally hasn't treated Argentines with great success.
In Adelaide, at the year's first tournament, del Potro reached the semifinals (losing to hometown favorite Chris Guccione), and has since made the final sixteen at two Masters Series events (Miami and Cincinnati). With his comfortable 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 second round win today against 31st ranked Jurgen Melzer, del Potro continues to add to his solid hard court resume in North America.

In the matach's opening game, Juan Martin hit three aces, which was an early indication of how well he would serve on the day. Del Potro routinely made short work of his service games, as he won 76 percent of his first serve points. With his serve clocking at 130 MPH on occasion, it was always an adventure returning serve for Melzer, who in spite of converting all three of his breakpoint chances, rarely threatened del Potro's serve.

For today's match, Melzer wore a skin-tight shirt that resembled Rafael Nadal's 2005 U.S. Open apparel. It accentuated the physique of the Austrian, but he didn't flex his muscles very often on Friday. Jurgen had trouble dealing with the heavy spin of del Potro's ground strokes, and didn't begin dictating the rallies until the third set, which was too little, too late.

The first two sets went easily to del Potro, who showed the fans at Court 13 why he is so highly touted in tennis circles. The 18 year-old mixed in flair, speed, and power on a day where he nullified Melzer’s game to the point where Jurgen was seen talking to his coach after nearly every point. But that was the kind side of Melzer. After he lost in one hour and thirty-seven minutes, the more frustrated side came out, as Melzer repeatedly smashed his racquet on the Deco-Turf.

A major factor that contributed to Melzer’s downfall was Jurgen’s inability to capitalize when he had del Potro reeling. In the first and third sets, Melzer broke del Potro (twice in the third set, in fact), but he always let the youngster back in. Jurgen hit the ball crisply at times, but never with any consistency throughout the match. Clearly frustrated, Melzer beat himself by losing the mental game, and in turn was soundly beaten by del Potro.

With his second win over the Austrian lefty – their previous meeting was at the February Argentina-Austria Davis Cup tie – Del Potro reaches the third round, a personal best at The Open, and will play either Radek Stepanek or Novak Djokovic.

    
Match Facts
-     del Potro broke Melzer eight times in today's match.
-     Melzer hit nearly double the amount of unforced errors than del Potro did - 43 to 24.
-     This was the the second time that these two have played each other - their last meeting was in the Davis Cup first round earlier this year, where del Potro won 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
-     Melzer's best performance at the US Open was in 2004, when he reached the third round. His record in singles at Flushing Meadows is now 5-6 after the loss.
-     With the win, del Potro advances to the third round for the first time at a Grand Slam.
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/match_reports/2007-08-31/200708311188595888343.html
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]
Advertisement

Foundation Georgia

www.foundationgeorgia.com