It’s a match-up that brings joy almost every time they meet for the sport of tennis. Whether it is at Wimbledon, the Rio Olympics, or the Shanghai Masters, whenever Juan Martin del Potro and Novak Djokovic have taken the court together in recent years. it has inevitably been a reflection of the very best that tennis has to offer.
Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro did not disappoint, playing out another epic in their rivalry.The players traded the opening two sets before del Potro got to love-forty against the Djokovic serve in the seventh game of the decider. Djokovic went down a break at four-three in the decider, but then didn’t lose another game, breaking the tiring del Potro serve twice in succession to secure a huge 46 64 64 win in the context of his season to date.
This is just del Potro’s second event of 2017, but he had a good run to the semi-finals of Delray Beach, before winning a tough three-set battle with Next Gen Frances Tiafoe in the first round. For Djokovic meanwhile, the now former World No. 1 seems to have lost the aura of invincibility that saw him so dominant up until winning the French Open for the first time, and with del Potro winning their most recent match in the Rio Olympics en route to the Silver Medal, the Argentine firmly believed he could win here.
Del Potro had broken first in the fifth game of the first set, before Djokovic broke straight back. Del Potro earned a fresh break for five-four, using his trademark forehand to blast the ball past the Serbian. This time Djokovic could not retrieve the immediate break, and the result was del Potro taking the first set.
Djokovic started the second set by being more aggressive, hitting more to del Potro’s backhand, keeping the tall Argentine moving, and staying away from the cannon-like forehand. It yielded immediate results as Djokovic raced into a double break lead at five-two in the second. Del Potro would retrieve one break, but Djokovic would serve out at the second time of asking.
Both men survived close thirty holds in the opening games in third. Del Potro was taking some risks by running around the backhand, and reading the times when Djokovic tried to sneak a ball past his forehand. It was the Argentine who drew first blood in the third, as a number of forehands, and a delicate sliced backhand pass brought him to three break points. Djokovic saved two of the three, but was picked off at the net again on the third, leaving far too much space in his backhand corner as he covered his forehand, and del Potro found the easy pass.
Djokovic quickly made amends, as del Potro started to look a little fatigued in his efforts to close out the match. His forehand deserted him, and Djokovic, just as he did in the first set, immediately restored parity.
Del Potro struggled in the next game, his forehand again flying wild, and he faced match point after a tired looking slice crawled into the net. A huge serve staved it off, but he quickly faced another after a cat and mouse point saw Djokovic keep del Potro pinned in the backhand, before finally going to the forehand. Djokovic then hit a massive return on the next ball, and del Potro could only frame the Djokovic smash for arguably the Serbian’s most important win of the season.
Djokovic will next face Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in a match that will could come close to matching this one if Kyrgios is mentally prepared for the match.
Djokovic looked elated at the end, celebrating the win with all four corners of the stadium before departing.
