Del Potro advances in Vienna

Written by: Global Chick on 27th October 2011

Del Potro advances in Vienna

Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina returns the ball to Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia during their singles match of the Davis Cup World Group semi final between Serbia and Argentina in Belgrade, Serbia, 16 September 2011. Del Potro won 7-5, 6-3 and 6-4. EPA/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC |

Former World Number Four Juan Martin Del Potro defeated the defending Champion Germany’s Philipp Petzschner in straight sets 6-3 6-4 today to move into the quarterfinals at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

The tall Argentine was faced with a couple of break points against Petzschner but he avoided losing serve in yesterday’s second round encounter. “I think I played much better in this match than last week. I need to play better to win more matches. He was a tough opponent. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the last point was the best of the match,” Del Potro said.

Last week’s Stockholm Open finalist Jarkko Nieminen won his opening round over Robin Hasse of The Netherlands in straight sets. The Finn moved up 11 spots on the singles ranking after his successful week in Sweden’s beautiful capital. The World No. 62 will meet with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round.

Qualifier Steve Darcis of Belgium had a great win over former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko. Darcis won the first set and let the second set slip and lost it 6-0. The deciding set ended in a tiebreak finishing 7-3. Darcis will face Dominic Thiem who took out ATP Tour veteran Thomas Muster in the first round.

Kevin Anderson is continuing his great form this week. The South African beat Marcos Baghdatis 6-2 7-6 (5) in the second round. This match contained several breaks of serve but it was Anderson who broke Baghdatis five times and took the match to advance into the quarterfinals in Vienna.

The Indo/Pak Express Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi fought hard for their spot in the second round. The duo came through winning 10-4 in the third set match tiebreak over Brazilian team Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares.

This year’s US Open Champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner suffered a setback today against Juan Martin Del Potro and Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-2. The number three seeds have already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London in November.

The number four seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski kicked off their week in Vienna with a win over South American pairing Juan Ignacio Chela and Andre Sa. The Poles came back from a set down to win 6-7 (5) 6-2 10-6. Fyrstenberg and Matkowski are ranked number eight in the race for London.

SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, 27 OCTOBER, 2011  CENTRE COURT start 1:00 pm

[Q] T Haas (GER) vs [Q] A Bedene (SLO)

Not Before 3:00 PM

[WC] D Thiem (AUT) vs [Q] S Darcis (BEL)

G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) vs [3] J Melzer (AUT)

Not Before 6:30 PM

[1] J Tsonga (FRA) vs J Nieminen (FIN)

[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs C Kas (GER) / A Peya (AUT)

COURT B start 2:00 pm

[4] R Stepanek (CZE) vs [Q] D Brands (GER)

X Malisse (BEL) vs [8] F Fognini (ITA)

Not Before 6:00 PM