The last match played on Stadium at Delray Beach had the long awaited comeback of Juan Martin Del Potro facing off with the Ukraine-born American Denis Kudla. Del Potro was really supported throughout the match by the Floridian crowd.
The Argentine was showing a lot of power from the forehand and the serve, which was what got him through, not facing a single break point and winning an amazing 92% of points after first serve. Kudla was definitely not playing the match of his life. Del Potro started well, taking the match from Kudla right from the beginning. The backhand didn’t look too bad, pretty solid. Kudla’s game was quite weak and was getting overpowered in the rallies. He definitely failed to exploit Del Potro’s backhand as much as he could. As the match went on, Del Potro’s backhand started to get worse. He sliced a lot of the balls for no reason, and when he would play a topspin backhand, it just didn’t look right. Kudla started to play more and more to the backhand and was moving way better than in the first set, although he still couldn’t figure out how to crack Del Potro’s serve. There are many positives to take from this match, but people shouldn’t jump to conclusions, since the right wrist looks far from a 100%. Juan Martin Del Potro will face John-Patrick Smith, the Australian who stopped Ivo Karlovic from getting his 300th win.
Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) – Denis Kudla (USA) 6-1 6-4
