Top seed Juan Martin del Potro admitted that he experienced a tougher than expected start to his campaign at the Los Cabos Open in Mexico.
Playing in his first match since the Wimbledon Championships, the Argentine battled to a 7-5, 6-3, win over American qualifier Marcos Giron. A player currently ranked 446th in the world, who was playing in his first ATP World Tour main draw since 2014. During the match, del Potro lost a 4-2 lead in the first set after being broken two consecutive times by the underdog. Nevertheless, he managed to fight back to claim the 7-5 lead after almost an hour of play. In the second set a single break in Del Potro’s favour guided him to the win.
“It was a tough match for sure. I didn’t expect to play this difficult of match against a 400 player but he did really good. We played a great first set but then in the end, I took my chances to close the match in two sets, and I’m glad for that,” atpworldtour.com quoted Del Potro as saying.
In the quarter-finals, Del Potro will take on Egor Gerasimov, who knocked out defending champion Sam Querrey 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(6). It is the first time the 25-year-old has reached the last eight of a tournament on the ATP World Tour. During the marathon clash, Gerasimov outlasted Querrey’s 23 aces and saved two match points in the deciding tiebreaker. It will be the first time Del Potro has played the player from Belarus.
“My dream is to win again in Mexico, in Acapulco I did well and had a great time, that is why I have a great memory and that is why I decided to play here. The affection that the Mexican people show me- hopefully I can continue to advance to share more days with them,” Delpo concluded..
Second seed Fabio Fognini avoided the same fate as Querrey in his second round match. The second seed recovered from a sluggish start to defeat France’s Quentin Halys 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Converting five of his six break point opportunities and winning 79% of the points behind his first serve.
Fognini will next play Yoshihito Nishioka, who entered the tournament with the use of his protected ranking. The Japanese player knocked out seventh seed Taylor Fritz 7-6(3), 6-1. Nishioka was trailing the first set 2-5, before roaring his way back.
Cameron Norrie continued his recent surge in success on the men’s circuit by defeating 2016 finalist Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. The world No.74, who reached the semi-finals of the Atlanta Open last week, eased to a 6-3, 6-3, victory after 78 minutes of play. Norrie now faces fourth seed Adrian Mannarino.
Finally, Damir Dzumhur will take on Michael Mmoh. Damir dismissed Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano 7-6(0), 7-6(5) and Mmoh tamed Peter Polansky with an almost identical scoreline of 7-6(1), 7-6(2).
